tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80817517388158785032024-02-21T09:15:31.623-05:00Sui Generis BrewingA blog on craft beer, home brewing, and yeast wrangelingBryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.comBlogger228125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-82799236938713187232017-09-21T09:24:00.000-04:002017-09-21T09:24:03.844-04:00So long, and thanks for all the fishI am happy to announce that this will be the last post, here at suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca ...<br />
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Why happy you ask - because Sui Generis Brewing is moving to a new home, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.com/">SuiGenerisBrewing.com</a>!<br />
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This will be the final post here at blogspot, and I will be shutting down commenting. But don't fear - all of the posts will be preserved here for prosperity, and also have been moved to the new site where commenting will remain active.<br />
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I hope you'll drop by and check out the new digs, and that you will continue to join my in my brewing adventures!<br />
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Bryan/Sui Generis BrewingBryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-64214281485379524222017-09-15T07:51:00.003-04:002017-09-15T07:51:51.561-04:00One Half MillionToday, (Friday September 15th, 2017), at 4 AM Eastern Time, my blog recorded my 500,000th visitor! When I started this blog I had intended it as little more than a brewing log that I couldn't use; I never expected for it to evolve to what it is now, nor did I ever expect as much interest as I have received.<br />
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Thank you to all my readers (and watchers of my youtube channel - 154,695 views and counting) for making this endeavour the success it has been, and for your on-going support (and questions/feedback).<br />
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I know things have been slow here on my blog, and on my youtube channel, but that is because I am working fervorously behind the scenes to modernise and update my blogging platform. A few quick posts are in the work, and I am hoping to have the new site ready to launch in early October...so please stay tuned!Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-83476258198975607302017-08-01T07:58:00.002-04:002017-08-01T07:58:56.259-04:00Please Excuse The Mess<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDV7yXy3556jwuxr3al5FEaM4PJCbVt5iTLkTYc7YTPe9vBY0rIMVHlw0qi9TbQcllVbRjHZL4oi8Hru5O2WFRn5_k2MUFbFmvILQ6g7rm1Bi7QbK7iF8QKZ0rSwKKZsn6YJO1cYh1EcBZ/s1600/newDigs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDV7yXy3556jwuxr3al5FEaM4PJCbVt5iTLkTYc7YTPe9vBY0rIMVHlw0qi9TbQcllVbRjHZL4oi8Hru5O2WFRn5_k2MUFbFmvILQ6g7rm1Bi7QbK7iF8QKZ0rSwKKZsn6YJO1cYh1EcBZ/s640/newDigs.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Please excuse the lack of posts and videos lately...The SG Brewery (and my family) have recently moved to the country, and I will return to my regular brewing/blogging/vloging activities later in the summer.<br />
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And look out for some changes too - a new website, new video features, and maybe even a little bit of social media.Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-1866156190076958322017-07-18T10:08:00.000-04:002017-09-04T14:14:44.082-04:00At long last, how the cheap beer kit turned out.<a href="https://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/12/20th-brew-versary-extravaganza.html">Back in early December 2016</a> I posted a rambling "brewversary" video, looking back at my 20 years as a home brewer. As part of the video I attempted to rebrew my first ever home brew - a Coopers Lager canned malt kit. The goal was simple - to see if 20 years of experience was sufficient to enable me to make the kit beer taste good, as my notes from 20 years ago (and my vague memories) indicated that my first batch of beer was horrible. I've actually had a few people ask how that beer turned out, and as it turns out, back in January I pulled a half liter that I force carbed and tasted. So its well neigh time for the big reveal...<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3kcLVu5NR78" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
...it was nearly "flawless", and therefore horrible. I had managed to make an on-style and off-flavour free light American lager. The sort of <strike>beer</strike> yellow fizzy stuff you buy for a buck a can. Minimal malt flavour, minimal hop character, no yeast presence. Boring, dull, uninspiring...you get the gist. Which left me with a problem - what the hell do I do with 23L of piss-water?<br />
<br />
Inspiration struck me as I drank a glass of wild cider a few nights later. I had made the cider in 2015, brewed exclusively with the wild yeast present on the apples pressed for the cider. It was fantastic - good apple taste, with a mild funk in the background to provide some complexity. So I swirled up the dregs from the bottle and dumped them into the beer. I figured that, at worst, I'd get a bit of a show and end up with a dumper...at best I may convert the beer into something less boring.<br />
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And a show I got - within weeks I had one of the gnarliest pellicles I've had on a beer in a while.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Ov50jzSFHTqethIQzSrVrgsB1G5A940nTnh5NnKZH49-O57AXHqRSX9zlThyphenhyphenQTXQWrcCKuyc_U-qMMjT6Oq0pO9lamu8AjEk2lYTfprKiUbnqTluJPKXj7ErVVsmO-j8S4ob1zKRarqv/s1600/FunkyLager0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Ov50jzSFHTqethIQzSrVrgsB1G5A940nTnh5NnKZH49-O57AXHqRSX9zlThyphenhyphenQTXQWrcCKuyc_U-qMMjT6Oq0pO9lamu8AjEk2lYTfprKiUbnqTluJPKXj7ErVVsmO-j8S4ob1zKRarqv/s400/FunkyLager0.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">She's a think of beauty!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KzxK5y3-wyNmUNtHhHrFUw31-2wJOf6bZG08AeCx_hraCObfIws8pWQFoUaXQBijh6jqUEAOn9wL3VO-fl-ztd-SNpD5Iu_Z5wF_wtxhYmpovEyDNXP-cQrXk70_4XfD0Hwm1HtYiI1k/s1600/FunkyLager2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KzxK5y3-wyNmUNtHhHrFUw31-2wJOf6bZG08AeCx_hraCObfIws8pWQFoUaXQBijh6jqUEAOn9wL3VO-fl-ztd-SNpD5Iu_Z5wF_wtxhYmpovEyDNXP-cQrXk70_4XfD0Hwm1HtYiI1k/s320/FunkyLager2.png" width="179" /></a></div>
The pellicle persisted until early June. Three weeks of a stable 1.001 gravity (down from 1.011) indicated the beer was ready to package, and in early July I transferred it to a keg. Interestingly, the beer had acquired a slight pink tinge during ageing; probably from oxidation, but perhaps contributed by the bugs from the cider.<br />
<br />
The yeast and bugs from the cider did exactly what I hoped they would - they converted this boring light lager into something more like a farmhouse ale or even a saison (despite the absence of wheat). Importantly, the milder character of the yeast/bugs didn't overwhelm the wild taste of the beer, providing just enough character to make the beer interesting, without overwhelming the character.<br />
<br />
I now love this beer...so without further ado, the tasting notes.<br />
<br />
<b>Appearance:</b> The beer is a light copper, bordering on straw in colour, and has a very faint haze. It pours with a thick white head which dissipates over a few minutes into small ropes of foam. The beer is highly carbonated (3 volumes), and as a result is lively in the glass.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOfbXWQpCnXv2hTabxiI5XCRSLT-yICOKQBBqKTly2xvZHmAIdA5XEGsmpv4o5xEm-H1vNPgidiY0piPTDX7snbPoz0kTzUDly4h5LirvbeK588h9IeUfknuukeimiDel-AjD56uZwpwbf/s1600/funkyLager.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOfbXWQpCnXv2hTabxiI5XCRSLT-yICOKQBBqKTly2xvZHmAIdA5XEGsmpv4o5xEm-H1vNPgidiY0piPTDX7snbPoz0kTzUDly4h5LirvbeK588h9IeUfknuukeimiDel-AjD56uZwpwbf/s320/funkyLager.png" width="180" /></a></div>
<b>Aroma:</b> Very little of the base beers aroma is present, and indeed, the aroma itself is quite mild. Dominating the aroma is an earthiness, much like freshly turned loam. A subtle pear-like fruitiness emerges as the beer warms.<br />
<br />
<b>Flavour:</b> The flavour of this beer is superb. It is very dry and thirst quenching. Up front is a modest malt character - not the bready character of pilsner malt, but rather the more grain-like character of 2-row. There is a subtle hint of hop flavour, but just barely noticeable. The real star of the show is the yeast character. The cider yeast/bugs imparted a modest earthy/woody funk; not dissimilar from the flavour of a chanterelle mushroom. The yeast also provided a subtle pear-like ester whose "sweetness" helps balance out the funk. The beer is very slightly acidic; not to the point of being tart our sour, but acidic enough to stand out from conventionally brewed beers. The aftertaste is a lingering earthyness and subtle ester character.<br />
<br />
<b>Mouthfeel:</b> The beer is light and effervescent in the mouth. It is very dry and light bodied, leaving your refreshed and wanting more.<br />
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<b>Overall:</b> This isn't the best beer I've ever made, but it is much better than how it began, and it is a perfect summer beer. I don't think I'd rebrew the beer as-is, but I could see using the cider culture to brew other light summer ales in the future; the balance the yeast achieved is fantastic, allowing for the production of tasty, but light, farmhouse style beers.Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-5567301857932013072017-07-03T18:12:00.000-04:002017-09-04T14:15:32.443-04:00One Solera, 2 Beers<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQGva36T7CFh0jXL7eHj-aiIM0MMpFha67VJUfQwl_fNEab6dcFFE6WLSWJDB-C1GftlqOgnWkdXI2fKF5xLwA8WzIYHLyucyCu3pRs4YKYFCdwnfT-cNdPlhpGDkZxx4X6S0OdgcwX0n2/s1600/soleraVOlerof.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQGva36T7CFh0jXL7eHj-aiIM0MMpFha67VJUfQwl_fNEab6dcFFE6WLSWJDB-C1GftlqOgnWkdXI2fKF5xLwA8WzIYHLyucyCu3pRs4YKYFCdwnfT-cNdPlhpGDkZxx4X6S0OdgcwX0n2/s320/soleraVOlerof.png" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brewing a refill for<br />
the LHBG solera.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Over the past 5 years I've maintained a series of solera's - two at home which, sadly, after 3 years of successful operation died to a bit of neglect on my part. The third belongs to my <a href="http://www.londonbrewers.ca/" target="_blank">brew club</a>, for whom I manage the solera. Starting this winter I am planning on a series of posts and videos about solera brewing, but as a bit of a prequel, I thought I'd share a brief post on by brew clubs solera (LHGB Solera) and two beers I prepared from the first pull out of it.<br />
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Firstly, for those of you who don't know, a solera is a method of continually producing sour beer. For a sour beer solera, a fermenter (often a large barrel) is filled with beer and allowed to ferment and age. At a set interval (usually between 6 months and 1 year) a portion of the solera is removed and bottled, and the solera topped off with fresh beer. Over time the effective age of the beer in the solera will approach a average age which will then be retained for the remainder of the solera's lifespan. For example, for the LHBG Solera, we remove half the beer every nine months, leading to a beer which will eventually converge on an effective age of 1.5 years. How effective ages are calculated, managing a solera, and other topics, will be the subject of some future posts.<br />
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The LHBG solera has been designed to be a middle-of-the-road sour beer; modest funk and restrained sourness. The beer is ~5% ABV, 50:50 mix of pilsner and wheat malt, and 10IBUs. This recipe was selected for a few reasons - the beer is aging in a white wine barrel, and this lighter tasting beer should allow for that character to shine through. Secondly, it allows members of the brew club a lot of flexibility in turning their share into something unique, through adding fruit, spices, or blending with other beers.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkP7fTQDnydVLThHc7bdKzmqltmqfJoVsZYj9tKt7DlBzBRfOuAAd2EQG_GM7oVeHYemexXRb2QjJldGwhKyj4Tt_bOQFUSlV6SpgrS9QtoiSR2CofLPQvLkTybsRQPlfaeGc4K_VCum0N/s1600/soleraTransfer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkP7fTQDnydVLThHc7bdKzmqltmqfJoVsZYj9tKt7DlBzBRfOuAAd2EQG_GM7oVeHYemexXRb2QjJldGwhKyj4Tt_bOQFUSlV6SpgrS9QtoiSR2CofLPQvLkTybsRQPlfaeGc4K_VCum0N/s320/soleraTransfer.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Refiling the LHGB solera.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The first time the solera was filled we brewed the beer on the personal brewing equipment of 10 volunteers, which was then pooled into the solera. The logistics of this wasn't trivial, leading our club to decide to build a large brew-rig to fill barrels (we have two at this time). Construction took a lot longer than expected (18 months), which was a happy mistake as it gave the beer a good bit of age on it, and got us to a point where we would have a solera with a stable effective age of 1.5 years. The first beer from the solera was a little more acidic than planned, and lacked brett character, so we tweaked the refill recipe to adjust. IBU's were increased to suppress sourness, performed a ferulic acid rest and fermented with a Belgian yeast to increase brett character, and finally, we added another sour culture to the mix to try and bring out a bit more complexity in the beer. These adjustments highlight the power of a solera - you can tweak a sour beer as it ages, to get a desired and consistent product.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWg9N2XQ_UE22Xtqnm1XU_RKQyFPvCpCK4pWfD2X-N2taJtLURrat8oXzPy_ggedKIUiB_u4sjAYANaHNGVopFPHpN2mVn7_JPmfH1RNBPFUtGO3FE8Uu_bbh7r1tItRvoKVzTtMv9GcI/s1600/soleraPellicle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjWg9N2XQ_UE22Xtqnm1XU_RKQyFPvCpCK4pWfD2X-N2taJtLURrat8oXzPy_ggedKIUiB_u4sjAYANaHNGVopFPHpN2mVn7_JPmfH1RNBPFUtGO3FE8Uu_bbh7r1tItRvoKVzTtMv9GcI/s320/soleraPellicle.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pellicle on the LHBG solera, as viewed during the refill.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A little over a month ago we "withdrew" the first beer from the LHGB solera, and shared the beer among interested club members. I am moving in the very near future, and has such had to do something quick with my share, as moving some carboys of sour beer are not really an option. Half of my share I bottled straight-up. The second half I put on some hibiscus for a week, whose fruit character should complement the sour beer nicely. The beer was bottled using sugar and champagne yeast, and left to carbonate for the past 6 weeks.<br />
<hr />
<h3>
Straight Sour</h3>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihxI1kJHPcyGafe4zIL-NG3C8EyRgHU1X5jPiOMvK0qZk44bnYXb2Wr47DjVSmJwo2SXPQtOO0DPBX4jT-ThK6CGkepwO7y3pcR25aFWq2AxVo2EL_Jab0VRY8CB_i_7PtaqMCtK374UZw/s1600/soleraUnmodified.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1034" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihxI1kJHPcyGafe4zIL-NG3C8EyRgHU1X5jPiOMvK0qZk44bnYXb2Wr47DjVSmJwo2SXPQtOO0DPBX4jT-ThK6CGkepwO7y3pcR25aFWq2AxVo2EL_Jab0VRY8CB_i_7PtaqMCtK374UZw/s320/soleraUnmodified.png" width="206" /></a></div>
<b>Appearance: </b>The unmodified (straight) sour beer pours with a thin and short-lived head. Body is golden in colour with a slight haze and a nice effervescence.<br />
<br />
<b>Aroma:</b> Aroma is lactic with a notable white-wine note. Missing from the aroma is any hint of funk - no mustiness, leather or barnyard to be found.<br />
<br />
<b>Flavour:</b> Up-front is a strong lactic tartness and a modest white wine character. Behind this is a bit of a bready malt character and a touch of hop bitterness. The flavours are a little unbalanced - the acidity is too high given the lighter nature of the beer, and this acts to hide both the wine and malt character. There is no brett funk at all in the flavour. There is also a slight off-flavour on the after taste; a touch of diacetyl which leaves a bit of butteriness on the aftertaste.<br />
<br />
<b>Mouthfeel:</b> Acidic, crisp and dry. Aftertaste is a lingering acidity in the back of the throat, and a bit of a buttery sweetness.<br />
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<b>Overall:</b> Not bad for the first pull from a solera, as there has been no chances to correct for flaws yet, but still in need of improvement. Good news is that all the flaws are correctable, and on the re-fill we modified the recipe to give more brett character (which should also clean up the diacetyl) and to suppress the lacto to make it less acidic. I'm stuck with my share as-is, but if I had the time I'd blend this beer with a saison to cut the acidity, add some funk, while still allowing the white wine character to shine though.<br />
<br /></div>
<hr />
<h3>
Hibiscus Version</h3>
<div>
The choice to add hibiscus was based on a few factors. The first was speed - hibiscus was something I could add and bottle on time for our big move. The second was balance - hibiscus adds a sensation of sweetness (although not actual sugars) which can help to counteract the acidity of the beer. Finally, its floral/fruity flavour should complement the white wine character of the beer nicely.</div>
<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjiXtLqM4XG7IcN8FLRI7I_30C3xXnhHAMHy_QauuDkYdBz3eCNpD6oGJM5bVLtZyxE4edhOCQY3DHEOrmeNym46_2CeK030fAbDjwJrnjei_LgyNpnY9KLVvG7i6xeSE2FceMlmeF2yW4/s1600/soleraHibiscus.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1021" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjiXtLqM4XG7IcN8FLRI7I_30C3xXnhHAMHy_QauuDkYdBz3eCNpD6oGJM5bVLtZyxE4edhOCQY3DHEOrmeNym46_2CeK030fAbDjwJrnjei_LgyNpnY9KLVvG7i6xeSE2FceMlmeF2yW4/s320/soleraHibiscus.png" width="204" /></a></div>
<div>
<b>Appearance:</b> Strawberry-red, with a touch of haze. Unlike the straight solera beer, this one has some additional head retention, with a modest white head that lasts for a couple of minutes.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Aroma:</b> Remarkable similar to the unmodified version; acidic with a touch of white wine. The aroma is perhaps a touch more fruity than the unmodified version, but only slightly so.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Flavour:</b> This is where the big difference is. While still acidic, there is enough "sweetness" from the hibiscus to counter-act it somewhat. It is still a very sour beer, but is less harsh and better balanced than the unmodified version. This helps to bring out the white wine character, with the hibiscus acting to accentuate the berry character of the wine rather than acting as its own flavour. And while I know this is purely perceptive, I cannot detect the diacetyl note that is present in the unmodified version.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Mouthfeel:</b> Dry, crisp and acidic. Despite the less acidic taste on the tongue, the beer still gives a lingering acidic burn in the throat. Aftertaste is an acidic berry character.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Overall:</b> The hibiscus makes this a more balanced beer than the unmodified version, but as with the unmodified form, this one too has some flaws that will be corrected by adjustments to the solera's recipe.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-26432831848078443092017-06-26T11:48:00.001-04:002017-09-04T14:16:46.566-04:00Apparently DMS is Still a Thing<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOwJhFLtoL3nVHiumvqJSH6yzRjI14t-uxsXYnGCgVq7OX9TDJEswkxAOojsYYLMwBydqaCmJkq6IDeMwbGlFBibTnsuwyN-yl5pg3RPAcWPyCHtcgUNMt86TLm97_NVKhITuIxFVaDRcN/s1600/DMSvienna.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="901" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOwJhFLtoL3nVHiumvqJSH6yzRjI14t-uxsXYnGCgVq7OX9TDJEswkxAOojsYYLMwBydqaCmJkq6IDeMwbGlFBibTnsuwyN-yl5pg3RPAcWPyCHtcgUNMt86TLm97_NVKhITuIxFVaDRcN/s320/DMSvienna.png" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DMS-Rich Vienna. Don't let<br />
its yummy appearance<br />
foold you!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I've been brewing since the bad ol' days of the mid-1990s. Back then malt quality is not what it is today, so we had to use a lot of tricks to get good beer. One of these was the 90 minute boil, a necessity when using Pilsner malt (and other minimally-modified malts), to drive off DMS. DMS, for those who do not know, is a sulphur-based compound present in malts which in high enough concentrations gives your beer a cooked-corn aroma and a green-vegetable-like flavour.<br />
<br />
Obviously, something you don't want in your beer. But, luckily for us, boiling drives it off...hence the old method of boiling lagers (and other Pilsner-malt rich beers) for 90 minutes.<br />
<br />
The good news is that malt quality has dramatically improved over the past 20 years, and the levels of DMS precursors in malt are pretty low compared to historical norms - so low that experiments by Brulosophy <a href="http://brulosophy.com/2015/10/08/update-lab-data-on-pils-malt-boil-length-exbeeriment/" target="_blank">found it hard to detect</a>, even after short boils. This improvement in malt quality has led homebrewers (including myself) to do things previously unthinkable - no-boil, 100% pilsner malt sours, 60 minute boils for most lagers, etc. Some of the best lagers I've brewed, like the <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/04/another-quick-lager.html">Vienna</a> & <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/02/its-lager-time.html">Pilsner</a> I brewed last year, used 60 minute boils with great success.<br />
<br />
So imagine my disappointment when I brewed a Vienna this year, using all the same methods and near-identical recipe to last years brew, only to find that the resulting beer had an intense DMS aroma and flavour - probably the worst DMS off-flavour I've had in a beer since the late 1990's. The beer is not undrinkable - in fact, I served it at a recent party and received good feedback - but it is flawed and not up to my normal standards. So what went wrong?<br />
<br />
Vienna is prepared in a similar manner to Pilsner malt, meaning it has a similar risk of DMS precursors - but should also be subject to the malting improvements over the past two decades. I've brewed beers previously made of 100% Vienna, with 60 minute boils, without issue. But there is one difference - this was my first time using Weyermann Vienna; all previous batches used Vienna malt from Breiss. Although the character of the malt from each manufacturer is very similar, slight differences in their malting process may have led to different levels of DMS precursors in one malt versus the other - this conceivably could occur even on a batch-by-batch basis within the same manufacturer. That said, a google search failed to find any suggestion that Weyermann had higher levels of DMS in their Vienna than Breiss; although I did find a few reports of DMS in Vienna-heavy beers.<br />
<br />
A second issue may have been batch size - I did a 40L batch this year, in place of a 20L batch last year. Because I use the same pot for both sizes of brews, the recent batch had half the surface area:volume ratio, which would slow the volatilization of DMS.<br />
<br />
A third issue may have been boil vigour; while I have an over-powered burner on my brewing rig, the larger boil volume, brewing of the beer on a cold day, plus a lot of wind on this years brew day, meant that the boil vigour and rate of boil-off were not as good on the more recent batch.<br />
<br />
At the end of the day, I think there are a few things to be learned from this batch. The first is that I probably should return to 90 minute boils for beers brewed using malts with high potential for DMS; especially if brewing larger volumes or on a day where boil vigour may be an issue. The second issue is that I should brew mission-critical beers - e.g. those intended for parties - with a bit more lead time, to allow for additional ageing (or a brewing of an alternative beer) should issues like this arise. And lastly, this beer allowed me to relive my youth, through recreation of flavours that were common in the early years of my brewing "career".Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-39094965884783753052017-06-12T08:48:00.001-04:002017-09-04T14:17:28.411-04:00Beer on the Brain - Where the Wild Yeasts RoamA few days ago I posted episode 3 of my "Beer on the Brain" series. This new video looks at new science which finally identifies the wild source of <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> - and its not fruit or tree bark, as we long thought...<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ChHcR9qaxj0" width="560"></iframe>Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-86026353365215076782017-05-12T08:42:00.001-04:002017-09-04T14:18:05.453-04:00To Vrai or Not To Vrai - Another White Labs Controversy?<h3>
<b>The Short Version</b></h3>
Brewing practices in both home and commercial breweries have undergone somewhat of a revolution over the past decade, leading to a cohort of brewers who approach brewing from a much more technical & microbiological perspective. As a direct consequence of this, some commercial yeast products have been revealed to be other than what the manufacturers have stated - in at least some cases, with the manufacturer themselves being unaware that their product was a yeast/bacteria different from what they believed they had. In this blog post we reveal that the yeast sold by White Labs as <i>Brettanomyces vrai</i> (<a href="http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp648-brettanomyces-bruxellensis-trois-vrai" target="_blank">WLP648</a>) - ironically a yeast mis-identified previously by the same manufacturer - is, in fact, a blend of two different yeasts - both are <i>Brettanomyces bruxellensis</i>, but are separate strains...although strains which appear to have evolved from a recent common ancestor.<br />
<br />
<h3>
<b>Some Background</b></h3>
Brewing practices have changed dramatically over the past decade, with procedures such as sour worting, wild captures, and home/brewery isolated yeasts going from rare experiments to commonplace brewing practices. This change in brewing practices has led to some issues with commercially sourced yeasts - as one example, the growth of practices such as sour worting have revealed yeast-contamination issues in packaged "pure" strains of <i>Lactobacillus</i>. Similarly, the more microbiology-centric practices of home and commercial brewers has led to some unexpected revelations, including identification of "Brettanomyces trois" as a unusually flavourful strain of conventional brewers yeast (<i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>). I was part of that effort, and the results of my and others work in identifying this yeast <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2014/12/brett-trois-riddle-wrapped-in-mystery.html">are the subject of a previous post</a>. According to the manufacturer, this mis-identification was due to a chance contamination of "Brett trois" by this strain of <i>Sacc</i>, leading to the release of the "correct" strain of <i>Brettanomyces</i>, under the 'vrai' (French for 'true') strain name.<br />
<br />
But is the strain name accurate - is this truly a pure strain of <i>Brettanomyces</i>? Most of us assumed so, even though this strain shows some characteristics when used as a pure culture for primary fermentation that run contrary to how most <i>Brettanomyces </i>behave when used for primary fermentation. When used in primary fermentation, most <i>Brettanomyces</i> act much like <i>Saccharomyces</i> - they rapidly ferment the wort, usually leave some residual sugars behind, and don't evolve over ageing as much as beers do when <i>Brettanomyces </i>are added during secondary fermentation - e.g. there is a lack of phenol production and super-attenuation. Beers brewed with WLP648 do ferment out fairly quickly, but tend to be more highly attenuated than beers brewed with other strains of <i>Brettanomyces</i> as the primary yeast. In addition, beers brewed with WLP648 also show some development during ageing similar to that of beers with <i>Brettanomyces</i> added to secondary - i.e. emergence of phenolic "funk", and additional attenuation of the beer. So is WLP648 simply a more aggressive <i>Brettanomyces</i> than other common brewing strains, or is something else going on?<br />
<br />
To our knowledge, it was assumed by other brewers that Brett vrai was simply a somewhat more attenuative strain of Brett - that is - until my friend and brewing collaborator (and co-author of this blog post) Devin streaked WLP648 on a wort-agar plate. Initially, the plate appeared as one would expect of a pure culture - all colonies on the plate appearing similar in size, shape and colouration. But over a longer incubation time smaller colonies began to appear between the larger colonies, leading us to speculate that there may be a second strain of yeast in WLP648.<br />
<br />
Using a combination of classical microbiology, microscopy, gene sequencing and test batches, Devin and I explored the two strains of yeast present in WLP648, demonstrating that Brett vrai contains two unique strains of <i>Brettanomyces bruxellensis</i>, strains which share a relatively recent common ancestor, but are otherwise quite different in their morphology and brewing characteristics.<br />
<br />
Experimental details can be found below the fold.<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<h3>
<b>First Signs of Contamination</b></h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdPBSfHUHEfOIJBkTqT1qhzaC5MA7HMZWnHTcAKQ7z09nnUqJvpDGXMmPPWMjQ8wGSRjYp7xPtBmfPyK00kG1Jkq-c_4c3qBP_syqt4-MImgk05nGCooJIjxfN2NZbSJEYQIGGqCzfwNe/s1600/BrettColonies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdPBSfHUHEfOIJBkTqT1qhzaC5MA7HMZWnHTcAKQ7z09nnUqJvpDGXMmPPWMjQ8wGSRjYp7xPtBmfPyK00kG1Jkq-c_4c3qBP_syqt4-MImgk05nGCooJIjxfN2NZbSJEYQIGGqCzfwNe/s320/BrettColonies.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: left;">Figure 1: </b><span style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: left;">WLP648 on malt-agar</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As mentioned in the intro, Devin saw the first signs of something fishy when he left WLP648 on a malt-agar plate for a few extra days - at first the plate appeared normal, with the scattered colonies of WLP648 appearing roughly the same size and shape. Several days later a second set of colonies began to appear - pin-prick sized colonies scattered between the larger colonies (<b>Figure 1</b>). For simplicity, these will be referred to as "Large Colony Variant" (LCV) and "Small Colony Variant" (SCV) for the rest of this blog post. The massively different size and growth kinetics of the LCV versus SCV can be indicative of one of two things. Firstly, the culture could be a mix of two distinct organisms. Alternatively, the yeast mixture could contain both normal WLP648, as well as respiratory mutants (sometimes called petite mutants). The latter arise when a strain of yeast gain a mutation in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_mutation" target="_blank">energy-generating genes of the mitochondria</a>, or in some cases, in genes which prevent the synthesis or uptake of key nutrients - in either case, the mutations prevent yeast from fully utilising the sugars or nutrients in the media, leading to slow growth and small colonies. At this time it is not clear which of these possibilities are correct. One thing is clear though - in the culture the SCV's outnumber the LCV's at least by 20:1.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAlmWRihwfpF0eN7oI9Mpc6RafY2q_5iyjSlD-_Gt7XbXwQjviJHbn1IjxJPLbDg2MO0HmSeUzHZX98WrgKSts_r1XMB4kjvy79ecMiEmibKrKz7IcvilyiyrqdO6eJkYSEVsQ8Jkhq5H/s1600/BrettV+-+Devin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFAlmWRihwfpF0eN7oI9Mpc6RafY2q_5iyjSlD-_Gt7XbXwQjviJHbn1IjxJPLbDg2MO0HmSeUzHZX98WrgKSts_r1XMB4kjvy79ecMiEmibKrKz7IcvilyiyrqdO6eJkYSEVsQ8Jkhq5H/s200/BrettV+-+Devin.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Figure 2:</b> Micrograph of WLP648</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Devin next placed a small sample, taken directly from the tube received from white labs, onto a microscope slide and took the micrograph shown in <b>Figure 2</b>. As is typical of <i>Brettanomyces</i>, the morphology of the cells is heterogeneous, with cells ranging from <i>Saccharomyces</i>-like ovoids through to elongated cells forming pseudohyphae, through to very small, irregularly shaped cells. While the varied shape among the larger cells is expected of <i>Brettanomyces</i>, the large portion of tiny cells is somewhat unusual - a portion of small cells is expected, as these normally represent cells which have recently budded. However, it would be unlikely for more than half the population of cell being recently budded yeast; especially considering these are yeasts out of a tube a few months old, and therefore not expected to be dividing. This is not proof-positive that there are two distinct organisms in WLP648, but it is suggestive.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-L1nCYrjKYb8LfYwhFG1hsTxVzORA7z3dmgDk15qGhxIowiJSQJ0-gVuzYJpUa_K_iBLO5_PzfXGnpbg6sECuusRS1O6eYsWVcnhQ1G0NvBVNVji4EiZdq6jXu6orzvf9ZE57vvEHyOW/s1600/BrettV+-+Me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-L1nCYrjKYb8LfYwhFG1hsTxVzORA7z3dmgDk15qGhxIowiJSQJ0-gVuzYJpUa_K_iBLO5_PzfXGnpbg6sECuusRS1O6eYsWVcnhQ1G0NvBVNVji4EiZdq6jXu6orzvf9ZE57vvEHyOW/s320/BrettV+-+Me.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Figure 3:</b> Malachite-green stained pure cultures of <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">LCV</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(left) </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">and SCV (right). </span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I then generated separate pure cultures of the LCV and SCV. This was not trivial as the SCV's were more numerous and tended to grow under LCV colonies - ultimately, I ended up diluting the sample in water and doing a spread-plate to get a pure LCV culture. The purified SCV and LCV cultures showed the same growth dynamics and colony sizes as they did in the mixed culture. LCM and SCV cells were then stained with the dye malachite green, to improve their visibility in micrographs, and imaged (<b>Figure 3</b>). The LCV displayed a mixed morphology, but universally were large cells that tended to grow in aggregates. The SCV cells were universally smaller than LCVs, and formed into networks of pseudohyphae. While the cell size differences is not diagnostic of petite mutants versus differing strains/species, the presence of aggregates versus pseudohypahe is not likely due to petite mutations in the same strain, and rather is suggestive of the presence of two unique strains/species, each with their own pattern of cell division and inter-cellular adhesion.<br />
<br />
Although it is hard to believe that the high proportion of SCV's in Devin's tube of yeast could have come from contamination when he opened the tube, or was a one-off contamination during packaging by the manufacturer, or due to mis-handling by the home brew shop where the yeast was purchased, it was necessary to confirm the presence of both the LCV and SCV in a second lot of WLP648. As such, we purchased a second tube of WLP648 from a different homebrew shop, confirming with the shop owner that the yeast was of a different lot than the first lot used (<b>Table 1</b>). This tube was cleaned externally with Wescodyne (a lab-grade germicidal agent), opened in a sterile culture hood, and plated on freshly autoclaved media. Both the LCV and SCV were present in this second lot of WLP648, present in the manufacturers' tube at roughly the same proportions, showing similar growth kinetics, and with similar morphology in micrographs (not shown).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Table 1: </b>WLP648 lot numbers and expiry dates</span><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3"><tbody>
<tr>
<td><b>Brewer</b></td><td><b>Yeast Lot Number</b></td><td><b>Expiry Date</b></td></tr>
<tr>
<td>Devin</td><td>1030320</td><td>May 22, 2017</td></tr>
<tr>
<td>Bryan</td><td>1029514</td><td>April 30, 2017</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<hr />
<h3>
Species Identification by ITS Sequencing</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1BnsfYrO2a3a95_EdtcbwLwYWVROqee8L02If4CLvhmdgZiMvUkmywviKKD97ITL9OhBvtnNKwkX-YwQvIFQSrGKbtri88JTzA6H3RucnuznqhE_-BKeLBR_GdyunteWupPgfXKnTKFEl/s1600/LCV_SCV+-+ITS+PCR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1BnsfYrO2a3a95_EdtcbwLwYWVROqee8L02If4CLvhmdgZiMvUkmywviKKD97ITL9OhBvtnNKwkX-YwQvIFQSrGKbtri88JTzA6H3RucnuznqhE_-BKeLBR_GdyunteWupPgfXKnTKFEl/s200/LCV_SCV+-+ITS+PCR.jpg" width="85" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Figure 4:</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> ITS PCR of LCV</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(middle) and SCV (right).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Left lane is a size-</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">standard.</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
Next, a firm genetic identification of LCV and SCV was performed using ITS ribosomal sequencing, as outlined in my previous blog posts (<a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2013/04/identifying-yeasts-using-ribosomal.html">1</a>, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2013/05/yeast-identification-test.html">2</a>, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2013/08/another-wild-yeast-identification-test.html">3</a>). The first step of this process is to use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction" target="_blank">PCR</a> to amplify a specific portion of the yeast ribosome termed the "Internal Transcribed Spacer" (ITS) region. This is the preferred DNA region for identifying yeast species, as it tends to evolve at a rate where it varies minimally within a species, but varies sufficiently between species to allow for species identification. The ITS of both the LCV and SCV amplified well, producing a DNA fragment of the expected ~800 base-pair size (<b>Figure 4</b>). </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The resulting DNA molecules were then purified and submitted for sequencing, and the resulting sequences <a href="https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?PAGE_TYPE=BlastSearch" target="_blank">BLASTed</a> to search for the closest match in the NCBI database, as well as aligned against my personal collection of representative ITS sequences (<b>Table 2</b>, <b>Figure 5</b>).<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="3"><tbody>
<tr>
<td><b>Strain</b></td><td><b>ITS Sequence</b></td><td><b>NCBI ID</b></td></tr>
<tr>
<td>LCV</td><td><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">CCGTAGGTGA ACCTGCGGAA GGATCATTAC AGGATGCTGG </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">GCGCAAGCCC GTGCAGACAC GTGGATAAGC AAGGATAAAA </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">ATACATTAAA TTTATTTagt tTagtCAAGA AAGAATTTTA </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">AAACTTTCAA CAATGGATCT CTTGGTTCTC GCGTCGATGA </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">AGAGCGCAGC GAATTGCGAT ACTTAATGTG AATTGCAGAT </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TTTCGTGAAT CATCGAGTTC TTGAACGCAC ATTGCGCCCT </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">CTGGTATTCC GGAGGGCATG CCTGTTTGAG CGTCATTTCC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TTCTCACTAT TTAGTGGTTA TGAGATTACA CGAGGGTGTT </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TTCTTCAAAG GAAAGAGGGG AGAGTGAGGG GATAATGATT </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TAAGGTTTCG GCCGTTCATT ATTTTTTTCT TCTCCCCCAG </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TTATCAAGTT TGACCTCAAA TCAGGTAGGA GGACCCGCTG </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">AACTTAAGCA TATCAATAAG CGGA
</span></td><td><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.608px;"><i>Brettanomyces bruxellensis</i> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.608px;">(100% identity)</span></span></td></tr>
<tr>
<td>SCV</td><td><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TCCGTAGGTG AACCTGCGGA AGGATCATTA CAGGATGCTG </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">GGCGCAAGCC CGTGCAGACA CGTGGATAAG CAAGGATAAA </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">AATACATTAA ATTTATTTAG TTTAGTCAAG AAAGAATTTT </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">AAAACTTTCA ACAATGGATC TCTTGGTTCT CGCGTCGATG </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">AAGAGCGCAG CGAATTGCGA TACTTAATGT GAATTGCAGA </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TTTTCGTGAA TCATCGAGTT CTTGAACGCA CATTGCGCCC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TCTGGTATTC CGGAGGGCAT GCCTGTTTGA GCGTCATTTC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">CTTCTCACTA TTTAGTGGTT ATGAGATTAC ACGAGGGTGT </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TTTCTTCAAA GGAAAGAGGG GAGAGTGAGG GGATAATGAT </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">TTAAGGTTTC GGCCGTTCAT TATTTTTTTC TTCTCCCCCA </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">GTTATCAAGT TTGACCTCAA ATCAGGTAGG AGGACCCGCT </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">GAACTTAAGC ATATCAATAA GCGGAGGAAA GGATCATTAC</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">AGGATGCTGG </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">G </span></td><td><i style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.608px;">Brettanomyces bruxellensis</i><br />
<i style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.608px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.608px; font-style: normal;">(100% identity</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.608px; font-style: normal;">)</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOs28RVaxlI8Fp5csvDhDcVP7ApMmPFCYonv8-QZlWf_slQM9LkE9E4OkLzO6XO6CsUleQ4oA4oHfTvhdtKdaePn-PlU-fq5n9SzIsnM7g2DkY9Py1KIDLddOkiTVplXOnVF_467pUr9qb/s1600/Brett_tree.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOs28RVaxlI8Fp5csvDhDcVP7ApMmPFCYonv8-QZlWf_slQM9LkE9E4OkLzO6XO6CsUleQ4oA4oHfTvhdtKdaePn-PlU-fq5n9SzIsnM7g2DkY9Py1KIDLddOkiTVplXOnVF_467pUr9qb/s320/Brett_tree.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Figure 5:</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> Phylogenic tree of LCV and SCV relative to representative</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">ITS sequences from a range of </span><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Brettanomyces</i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> species.</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So both strains are clearly and unambiguously <i>Brettanomyces bruxellensis</i>, leading to the question of whether we are looking at petite mutants, or whether they are different strains.<br />
<hr />
<h3>
Strain Identification by RAPD PCR</h3>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJyjFeZfMbfZrsRM3hsb6iuDHfEKAS9_peOqpyohDRLlutpS8ApFsNE66wJP8CyowQXUye4psQ87Hu9uvAJchb92jzjzaC8m-NtFHczsNfyRiMHFyeLp7oNQLiLdNIOLmW2ulfXRYl9_RX/s1600/B-vrai---RAPD-diagram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJyjFeZfMbfZrsRM3hsb6iuDHfEKAS9_peOqpyohDRLlutpS8ApFsNE66wJP8CyowQXUye4psQ87Hu9uvAJchb92jzjzaC8m-NtFHczsNfyRiMHFyeLp7oNQLiLdNIOLmW2ulfXRYl9_RX/s320/B-vrai---RAPD-diagram.jpg" width="201" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: left;">
<b style="font-size: 12.8px;">Figure 6:</b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> RAPD PCR of LCV </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">SCV with the OPK3, </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">OPD19 and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">OPC20 primers. </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Left lane is a size-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">standard.</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Identifying strains by genetic means is more difficult than species, as strains tend to vary much less between each other than do species. As such a different genetic approach needs to be taken - namely, we will "fingerprint" the strains to see if there is differences. We used an older approach for this termed "RAPD PCR", which uses the same <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction" target="_blank">PCR</a> method used above to purify the ITS region, but with one important difference. Normal PCR uses stringent conditions to ensure that a specific segment of DNA, located between two PCR primers, is selectively amplified. In contrast, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAPD" target="_blank">RAPD</a> uses short primers under conditions where primer-DNA binding is less stringent, in order to amplify semi-random, but reproducible, segments of DNA. The genetic variation between strains should alter the patterns of bands produced, allowing for identification of different strains. We used three primers - OPC20 (ACTTCGCCAC), OPD19 (CTGGGGACTT) and OPK03 (CCAGCTTAGG), <a href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjWkOm0k6TSAhUr94MKHdNxCnwQFggdMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov%2Fpubmed%2F24814796&usg=AFQjCNFZb12EBp_X01uq7kmd5h9EjF6f2Q&sig2=FY0E7ZpdkFOiJVP-WNoS5Q&bvm=bv.147448319,d.amc" target="_blank">which have previously been shown to work well for strain ID in <i>Brettanomyces</i></a>.<br />
<br />
The procedure is fairly simple; a each PCR reaction is run with extracted DNA and one of the above primers. The 35 PCR cycles are run using a 94C denaturation step (1 min), 35C annealing step (1 min) and a 2 min elongation at 72C. For those not familiar with PCR, that means we are "photocopying" regions of the genomic DNA, using a low annealing temperature to pick up differences between strains (higher annealing temperatures copy specific regions of DNA, lower is less specific).<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6rANXp-7PD8wQMQ54KBO1FwsQXrGYSRj9ckLV_zr5aNPmtZm4h85zf_OF1VfIH-TTlURuzYAgwvocJa3IwXZKT4EDooxBh0IrbwcdwPUUMwOQyS22ePvZcbLpHCZXJGP7cWvMdt416KX/s1600/OPC_line_chart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ6rANXp-7PD8wQMQ54KBO1FwsQXrGYSRj9ckLV_zr5aNPmtZm4h85zf_OF1VfIH-TTlURuzYAgwvocJa3IwXZKT4EDooxBh0IrbwcdwPUUMwOQyS22ePvZcbLpHCZXJGP7cWvMdt416KX/s320/OPC_line_chart.jpg" width="178" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: left;"><b>Figure 7:</b> Intensity plots of RAPD<br />
PCR gel in Figure 6.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The banding pattern for each PCR reaction can be observed in <b>Figure 6</b>. As you can see the OPK3 and OPD19 primer produced the same banding pattern (ignoring band intensity, which is not diagnostic), indicating that these are either the same, or very closely related, strains. In contrast, the OPC20 primer, which is most sensitive to different strains, produced two unique bands in the SCV not seen in the LCV, a pattern that is more obvious in an intensity profiles of the OPC20 lanes (<b>Figure 7</b>). As you can see, the OPC20 primer revealed that the SCV has two unique bands not seen in the LCV.<br />
<br />
What does this mean? The near-identical OPK3 and OPD19 banding pattern means that these strains are close-cousins, rather than radically different strains. Indeed, this shared banding pattern is consistent with a recent common ancestor in the past century or so. But the presence of unique bands in the OPC20 lanes tells us that these two strains of yeast have differentiated from each other fairly significantly.<br />
<br />
In other words, these are unique strains of <i>Brettanomyces</i>, and not merely minor variations (i.e. petite versus non-petite) within a single strain. This also eliminates the possibility that this is an environmental contaminant Devin or I picked up when opening the tubes - the likelihood of having such a similar strain of <i>Brettanomyces</i> floating around both of our personal breweries (and my workplace) is negligable, meaning the only place that these two yeasts could have come from is the white-labs vial.<br />
<hr />
<h3>
Tasting Notes</h3>
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-cX5pnGWpx_o1vYpow1XMxokkguJ6swNnMlMCbRp7RzR-639yK2Bx0gtVr7vYbbXkzaebmTJh6obyxBWYV73g48FdDfUdSt6Wc5S0kUmfwfSwKXKzQA1jQVlNmVyLkt14Q6fqAoVxhO-1/s1600/20170225_133004-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-cX5pnGWpx_o1vYpow1XMxokkguJ6swNnMlMCbRp7RzR-639yK2Bx0gtVr7vYbbXkzaebmTJh6obyxBWYV73g48FdDfUdSt6Wc5S0kUmfwfSwKXKzQA1jQVlNmVyLkt14Q6fqAoVxhO-1/s200/20170225_133004-1.png" width="112" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A rare stove-top brew</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Of course, the big question is what kind of beer do these yeast make. To test this I prepared a small (6L) batch of moderately fermentable wort (stove-top mashed at 67C, 60 min), comprised of 1.25 kg of 2-row malt and 4 g Simco hops (60 min), to provide ~20 IBU of bitterness. The brew went a little better than expected, so the starting gravity of the test batch was 1.054 (rather than the expected 1.044). The beer was split into two 4L jugs, small starters of LCV and SCV pitched, and the fermenters held at 22C (warm, but intended to bring out the ester character of the yeasts). 10 days latter the beer was decanted into plastic bottles and force-carbed using a carbonation cap...which then sat in the fridge for a few weeks while Devin and I tried to find time to do a tasting.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tasting took place on May 9th, with both Devin and I sampling the beers side-by-side:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh85-XtVSg7F_etdtq5EaEByMfOIPkfEHEwAQCmohrDYJii4EyOWjRtrdsnUh5VDyGl94EHRKHGR932lKeMM6K-7ecQfJUjUasfBHdnaeipnSFmUGSXhy6BTJv_iwIBhv3w8-dY2a4vkAor/s1600/SCV_LCV.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh85-XtVSg7F_etdtq5EaEByMfOIPkfEHEwAQCmohrDYJii4EyOWjRtrdsnUh5VDyGl94EHRKHGR932lKeMM6K-7ecQfJUjUasfBHdnaeipnSFmUGSXhy6BTJv_iwIBhv3w8-dY2a4vkAor/s200/SCV_LCV.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Left:</i> SCV, <i>Right:</i> LCV</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><i>SCV:</i></b><br />
<ul>
<li>FG: 1.014, 5.3% ABV</li>
<li>Attenuation: 73%</li>
</ul>
<i>Appearance:</i> Something odd had happened to this beer as it was brewed or aging, and it took on a dull copper-beige colour. Poured with a thin and quickly disappating head. It wasn't anything pretty to look at.<br />
<div style="font-family: "times new roman";">
</div>
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> The aroma of this beer was amazing - an intense dark cherry aroma dominated, with a touch of barnyard or wet hay-like funk in the background.<br />
<br />
<i>Flavour:</i> The flavour of this beer matched the aroma; intense fruit character with strong notes of dark cherry and red wine. Some funk flavours were present in the background. Finish was sweet and refreshing.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Medium-bodied and whetting. After taste was sweet and fruit, with a noticeable acidity.<br />
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> For such a simple beer, this one turned out great. Fruity with a hint of funk; I could see using this yeast in a darker farm house ale, or perhaps in some sort of a kettle sour.<br />
<br />
<b><i>LCV:</i></b><br />
<ul>
<li>FG: 1.016, 4.9% ABV</li>
<li>Attenuation: 69%</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<i>Appearance:</i> Identical to the SCV, an off-putting copper-grey with minimal head.<br />
<br />
<i>Aroma:</i> The aroma of this beer was quite different; an intense mousy/musty aroma dominated, with only the faint aroma of fruit in the background.<br />
<br />
<i>Flavour:</i> Here Devin and I disagree. I found the flavour to be an overwhelming, to the point of being unpleasant, mousy/stale funk, behind which was a mild "generic fruit" character. Devin was less negative about the character, although we both agreed on the particular flavours present. Finish was sweet, but with a strong funk note.<br />
<br />
<i>Mouthfeel:</i> Much the same as the SCV; medium-bodied and somewhat refreshing.</div>
<div>
<br />
<i>Overall:</i> To my palate, the funk of the LCV strain was overwhelming and unpleasant; I would not drink this beer, and if served it in a pub would send the pint back. Devin was less negative, but also thought that the LCV was a poor cousin to the SCV.<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Blended Strain:</i> I wasn't smart enough to ferment the test beer with both strains, but luckily Devin had a bottle of a similar beer made with Vrai (the same tube of Vrai the SCV and LCV were isolated from). I didn't take complete notes on Devins beer, but it very much split the middle between the LCV and SCV strains - mid-road on both the cherry and funk notes. One aspect that was unique was a skunky character that Devin noticed built over time. This was not the skunky character of light-struck hops, but rather a <i>bona fide</i> intense aroma much like that of musk. Again, I preferred the SCV over the blend, but the blend made a good beer.<br />
<br />
I also brewed an IPA with Vria...which will be the topic of a future post. TLDR version would be that Vrai ruined my IPA.<br />
<br /></div>
<hr />
<h3>
Conclusions</h3>
<i>What are They?</i><br />
Given the growth and genetic differences, and the higher attenuation of the SCV compared to the LCV, we can conclusively state that these are not normal versus petite mutants of a single strain. Rather, these are two unique, but closely related strains. While they are minimally different genetically, the genetic changes they have undergone have led to a number of large changes in biology. Assuming the SCV descended derived from the LCV - the most likely interpretation of the RAPD data - these mutations led to a large decrease in cell volume, a change in the cell division or adhesion properties of the yeast, and led to lower POF gene activity (funk), higher expression of one or more of the 6 or so genes associated with ester production Atf1p, Atf2p, Eht1p, Eeb1p, EEB1 and Iah1p), and influenced some of the two dozen or so genes which affect cell volume.<br />
<br />
Without a full genome sequence it is not possible to state exactly what occurred, but the fact that the SCV varies genetically from the LCV by the addition of between two to four OPC20 sites, it is most probable that the SCV is a descendant of the LCV, with the differentiation between the strains a product of the insertion of genetic materials. Again, without sequencing this is supposition, but insertions of new DNA is commonplace in yeast, usually occurring via <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposable_element" target="_blank">transposons</a>. Tansposons are mobile genetic elements which can made copies of themselves elsewhere in the genome. This ability to "copy" themselves means that they are common in the genome - your genome is ~44% transposon - but it also means that they can greatly influence the regulation of genes. In yeast, movement of transposons is fairly common, and is associated with large-scale changes in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC390582/" target="_blank">gene expression</a>, and at least in the case of <i>Saccharomyces</i>, transposon-associated changes in gene expression account for some of the differences <a href="https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2164-14-399" target="_blank">between yeast strains</a>.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>How Did White L</i><i>abs Miss This?</i><br />
I don't know what White Labs does behind the scenes to check their strains, but the fact that this has missed their attention (assuming the blend is not deliberate) is not surprising to me. Firstly, it was extremely difficult to separate the SCV from the LCV as the larger number of SCVs, combined with their slower growth rate, meant that each LCV colony grew on top of several SCV colonies. As such we had to go to great lengths to get a pure culture. Secondly, the much slower growth rate of the SCV meant that unless you specifically went out of your way to culture the plate for an extended period of time, you would not see the SCV colonies; even though they were mixed in with the LCVs.<br />
<br />
<i>Does it Matter?</i><br />
From a brewery perspective, this probably doesn't matter. While the SCV produces a nicer beer (IMO; I love the intense cherry flavour), the blend itself produces a beer with a more balanced fruit:funk character. From a brewing-management position, the slower growth-rate of the SCV means that the characteristics of beers brewed with re-pitches of this blend may vary depending on when you repitch - yeast taken at high kraussen or soon after kraussen has fallen will be LCV-dominated, while beer that has aged for a while will have a more equal, or even SCV-dominated population. This may impact the overall flavour profile of the beer, although further experimentation will be required to see if that is the case.Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-59374060190529230362017-05-09T14:17:00.000-04:002017-09-04T14:37:21.903-04:00My Warm Lagering MethodI must apologise about my poor blogging output over the past year or so, but there have been some big changes behind the scenes which have got in the way of my blogging and brewing...but I've not been completely inactive.<br />
<br />
As my regular readers may recall, I've done some test brews using a newer "lagering" method in which lager-style beers are produced using lager yeasts fermented at ale temperatures (post <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/02/its-lager-time.html">1</a>, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/04/another-quick-lager.html">2</a>, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/12/mikes-export-recipe-tasting-notes.html">3</a> and <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/08/imperial-pale-lagerwith-frozen-yeast.html">4</a>). Motivated by these successes, I've brewed over a dozen lagers using this method in order to refine this process, with my last two batches produced using the same refined method. The first of these was a German-style pilsner; specifically the "Myburger" Bitburger clone from "<a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Brewing-Classic-Styles-Winning-Recipes/dp/0937381926">Brewing Classic Style</a>". Not only was it delicious, but I had trouble telling it apart in side-by-side tastings from its commercial cousin. The second beer was a doppelbock, and was everything I'd expect from the style. The take-home lesson from those two brews is that you can make very good "lagers", true to style, without the need for prolonged cold fermentation. Indeed, the Pilsner was 2 weeks grain-to-glass, and a month for the doppelbock.<br />
<br />
All the gory details are below the fold.<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<h3>
The Method:</h3>
<div>
My method is pretty straight forward, and does not differ much from the one worked out by Brulosophy.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Preparing the yeast:</b> </i>The single most important part of the process is a large pitch of very healthy yeast. A good pitch of healthy yeast, into an appropriately prepared wort, will provide the clean fermentation your lager requires. Get the yeast part right and the rest will fall into place.<br />
<br />
<i>For liquid yeast:</i>A few days in advance prepare a large starter of yeast - for an average gravity lager you will want 1.5 to 2 million cells/ml/degree plato (AKA strong ale-to-conventional lager pitch rates). For high gravity lagers you will want 2 to 2.5 million/ml/degree plato. Your goal with this starter is to maximise yeast numbers and yeast health - use plenty of yeast nutrient, and be sure to stir vigorously enough to ensure maximum oxygenation. These starters are large, so you are going to want to decant the spent wort prior to pitching your yeast.<br />
<br />
<i>For repitched yeast:</i> Simply having a lot of yeast is not sufficient - you also need it to be healthy. As such, if repitching yeast from a previous brew, make sure you run it through a revitalization starter - e.g. add the amount of yeast you intend to pitch to a 1 to 1.5L/1.040 gravity starter, made with a good dose of yeast nutrient and stirred to give a high level of oxygenation. This will not produce more yeast, but will ensure that the yeast you pitch are at peak health. Again, I would suggest decanting these starters, although the smaller volume make this less critical than when preparing a starter from a tube/smackpack/yeast bank.<br />
<br />
<i>For dry yeast:</i> Dry yeast tends to be in relatively good shape, so long as it isn't too old or was stored improperly. Again, you want a lot of yeast, so for an average-gravity lager you will likely want to use 2 sachets of yeast; 3-4 sachets for a high-gravity lager. Be sure to <a href="https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/rehydrating-dry-yeast/" target="_blank">rehydrate the yeast properly</a>, in order to ensure the maximum number of active yeast and the best yeast health.<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Preparing the beer:</i> Nothing special needs to be done here, and no modifications need to be done to the recipe; simply brew the wort to the best of your abilities. At the end of the boil, cool the beer as cold as you can reasonably get it - ideally to 14-16C, although anything below 20C is acceptable.<br />
Transfer the beer to a semi-sealed fermenter such as a carboy + blowoff tube. You want to avoid "open" bucket-style fermenters as these can enhance ester formation and may lead to a loss of the modest sulphur character present in most lagers. When you transfer the beer be sure to transfer a small amount of trub as this can also help to suppress both ester and fusel alcohol production. Finally, oxygenate well and pitch your yeast.<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Primary Fermentation:</i> Because we've front-loaded our brewing process with several methods to provide a clean fermentation, we can get away with a fair bit on the fermentation end. A broken temperature controller led to an accidental "lager" fermentation at 25C (77F), and the beer still turned out fine. That said, some control over fermentation temperature is simple insurance, and at a minimum, should speed the time the beer needs to age before it is keg ready. I've had the best results (or, at least, keggable beer the quickest) when I held the fermentation temperature to between 14 and 17C (57 to 62C) for the first 3 to 4 days; this is when most ester formation occurs, so by keeping things cool we can further minimise ester production. At this point I raise my fermentation temperature to 20-21C (68-70F), and hold that temperature until primary fermentation is done (~2 weeks). These higher temperatures ensure full attenuation and cleanup of off-flavours such as diacetyl and acetaldehyde.<br />
<br />
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Secondary Fermentation & Packaging:</i> Secondary fermentation is not required for average-gravity lagers, but I've found that transferring higher-gravity lagers to a carboy with airlock for an additional 2-4 weeks can greatly help their character and get them closer to style. Once ready for packaging, crash-cool the beer and transfer to the keg/bottle (add gelatin at this time, if you use it). Carb as per usual and serve - all of my test batches but the one brewed with S-23 was fantastic on the first serve, although in about half of cases I've noticed some modest improvement over the first week or so in the keg.<br />
<br />
And that's it - pitch lots of healthy yeast, maintain some level of control over your fermentation, and you should end up with a nice lager...in two (or so) weeks.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<hr />
<h3>
Why Does It Work?</h3>
<div>
The key feature separating lagers from ales is the relative absence of esters and other compounds such as diacetyl. In addition, lagers tend to have a modest sulphur note that is absent in ales. This unique set of flavour characteristic is a product of how these beers are fermented - cool temperatures suppress ester formation, and sulphur-producing yeasts give the sulphur character which is preserved by the slower fermentation that occurs at cooler temperatures. But this colder fermentation also comes with some costs - namely, a tendency for certain metabolic intermediaries such as diacetyl and acetaldehyde to accumulate in the beer. Traditionally, these undesired off-flavours were dealt with through prolonged ageing, during which time the yeast slowly metabolise these intermediaries, eventually leaving behind the clean crisp beer we expect of lagers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The "warm" method achieves the same ends - low esters, some sulphur and minimal diacetyl or other off-flavours, but does so through different means:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Right Yeast:</i> Not all yeasts are created equal, and as such, not all lager yeasts will work as well with this method as others. In my hands W34/70 is the king, producing clean lagers under nearly any condition I threw at it. Other good yeasts (again, in my experience, this list is not comprehensive) includes Wyeast 2112, WLP800, and WLP833.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Wrong Yeasts:</i> As you can image, when there are right yeasts there are also wrong yeasts. S-23 is the wrong yeast as at warm temperatures it makes your beer taste like fruit salad...although, now that I think about it, it is a generally horrible yeast and should be condemned to the fiery depths of hell.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Reduced Esters:</i> The relative absence of esters are the primary feature that separates lagers from ales, and therefore reducing ester formation (and other off-flavours such as fusel alcohols and acetaldehyde) are key to a successful warm-fermented lager. Esters are a product of an alcohol being reacted with an acid; for conventional brewers yeast the most common esters are made through the reaction of ethanol (the alcohol) with metabolic intermediaries such as acetyl-CoA; in this particular case producing the ester ethyl acetate (apple-like flavour). Ester production in beer is dictated largely by the metabolism of yeast, with any factor that increases the production of metabolic intermediaries, or which prolongs their presence in the fermenting beer, leading to more esters.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Many of the intermediaries are produced at their highest levels during cell division and during cell stress, while the presence of oxygen can aid in the rapid removal of these compounds. So by maximising cell numbers and health, and oxygenating well, we can minimise ester production (as well as the production of fusels, acetaldehyde and diacetyl). A small amount of trub present in the fermenting wort has also been demonstrated to help reduce esters, which is why I make sure to transfer a small amount of trub to the primary fermenter.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Likewise, keeping the first few days of fermentation as cool as possible should help - that said, I've failed to do this on a few of my test batches without noticeable defects in the resulting beer. In my opinion, if you do everything else right, keeping the early stages cooler is simply a bit of insurance rather than a necessity.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Low diacetyl and acetaldehyde:</i> Diacetyl (buttery) and acetaldehyde (green apple) flavours are common flaws in lagers. Both of these flavours tend to be present in modest quantities early in lager fermentation, and traditional lager fermentations require prolonged ageing to reduce them to appropriate levels. Diacetyl and acetaldehyde both form as intermediaries in the breakdown of sugars by yeast. Given enough time, the yeast will reconsume and remove these compounds...and do so more quickly at warmer temperatures. For your average-gravity fast lager, the two week fermentation is sufficient for this; for higher gravity lagers an additional 2 or 3 weeks in secondary (again, at a warmer temperature) will lead to the reduction of these compounds.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Sulphur:</i> A modest amount of volatile sulphur compounds are a normal constituent of a lager's flavour and aroma profile. Lager yeasts tend to produce a lot of volatile sulphur compounds (hence why lager fermentations tend to smell like flatus), and again, the traditional long ageing of lagers gives time for this to off-gas. Ironically, maintaining an appropriate level of sulphur compounds in the warm-fermented beer can be difficult as the more vigorous fermentation tends to drive these compounds off. In my experience using a semi-sealed fermenter (carboy + blow-off tube) maintains enough of this character to stay in-style; using a more open fermenter such as a pail may lead to excess loss of these compounds, and an off-style finish.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-54930501094104392282017-03-31T09:59:00.001-04:002017-09-04T14:19:56.424-04:00Necessity - The Flower Vase of Invention?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIxs8ztGguxFv4-2PulvgpgARAqxHxcR-x9dIRe_FzfhdU8uG1dGadxCO_wI0Cl-kPYWBr7HbsUbZJg50B7cFYTA6xOZn4lo8fYxyEm3PYbKdJn4odSH9OF0ozUPQCvfqeuLqvFIc6rgeA/s1600/flowerFlask.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIxs8ztGguxFv4-2PulvgpgARAqxHxcR-x9dIRe_FzfhdU8uG1dGadxCO_wI0Cl-kPYWBr7HbsUbZJg50B7cFYTA6xOZn4lo8fYxyEm3PYbKdJn4odSH9OF0ozUPQCvfqeuLqvFIc6rgeA/s400/flowerFlask.png" width="301" /></a></div>
I ran into a bit of a hiccup in preparing for a brewday this weekend. I had just finished preparing my starter and was getting it setup on the stir plate. After the usual jostling, I got the stir bar engaged to the magnet in the stir plate and turning slowly. Satisfied that everything was stable, I turned up the speed on the plate, producing the usual satisfying whirlpool in the starter. No sooner than I started my next task - checking my inventory of malt - did I hear a "ping"...followed by the sound of a slow drip of liquid.<br />
<br />
Turning around I saw, to my horror, that the plate had thrown the stir bar and cracked the flask (you can see a bit of the crack, left-side of the image). The starter was too big for my smaller flask, so looking around I came across the only available container - a flask of flowers. Long story short, the flowers have been moved to a less visually pleasing container, and a bit of bleach rendered their vase clean and sanitary. The bottom is too thick for the stir plate to work, but it makes for a pretty starter!Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-60679555621653073322017-03-23T14:47:00.005-04:002017-09-04T14:20:16.623-04:00Adam's Pale Ale (an APA...get it?)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWoLKxQUM_fIVlmr5puZMjPwbgilJ9CpRktybK8ZAdTErMlAr8yKm8pX00EQwqBvyEAnXaWpxpfgt3-cDJBfPr7KFsc8kpSN22wEx6drJkv44st3BnLuq39znhWECylxVtTJ-CGxH6fetX/s1600/AdamsAPA.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWoLKxQUM_fIVlmr5puZMjPwbgilJ9CpRktybK8ZAdTErMlAr8yKm8pX00EQwqBvyEAnXaWpxpfgt3-cDJBfPr7KFsc8kpSN22wEx6drJkv44st3BnLuq39znhWECylxVtTJ-CGxH6fetX/s320/AdamsAPA.png" width="178" /></a></div>
I've done a poor job of blogging recently, so here's my first attempt to getting back on track. Back in February I helped a friend (Adam) learn to brew on my system. This beer was designed with his tastes in mind - hoppy but not too bitter. A classical-ish American-style Pale Ale...an Adam's Pale Ale...an APA (get it, that's a beer "joke", or maybe a dad "joke"...regardless, its some sort of a joke, I swear).<br />
<br />
<b>Appearance:</b> Golden with a modest white head. Sightly cloudy, although not as cloudy as it appears in the picture.<br />
<br />
<b>Aroma:</b> Peaches. Lots and lots of ripe peaches...but there are no peaches in this beer.<br />
<br />
<b>Flavour:</b> Overall I am happy with this flavour, although I would tweak the balance of flavours if I rebrew this beer. Upfront is a fruity hop character with a slight catty bite - courtesy of the large late addition and dry-hopping with Amarillo and Simcoe hops. Behind this was a slightly sweet, but otherwise fairly neutral, malt backbone. The hop bitterness was low - to my tastes a little too low to properly balance out the malty sweetness and hop fruitiness. Either a lower mash temp, or drawing back on the Munich malt, would give a more pleasant balance of flavours.<br />
<br />
<b>Mouthfeel:</b> Modest body, accentuated by a lower level of carbonation, made for a creamy feel to the beer. Aftertaste was malt-sweetness and hop fruitiness. No lingering bitterness what-so-ever in the aftertaste.<br />
<br />
<b>Overall:</b> A pretty good beer. The balance of sweet and bitter is a bit more towards the sweet than I would prefer, but its easy-drinking, hop-forward and delicious - just what Adam ordered.<br />
<br />
Recipe below the fold.<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<table bgcolor="#C0C0C0" border="0" style="width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: white; font-size: x-large;"><i>Adams American Pale Ale</i></span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: white;"><i>American Pale Ale</i></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<table border="0" style="width: 95%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Type:</i></b> All Grain</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Date:</i></b> 04 Feb 2017</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Batch Size
(fermenter):</i></b> 40.00 l</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Brewer:</i></b> Bryan</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Boil Size:</i></b> 48.20 l</td>
<td width="52%"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Asst Brewer:</i> Adam</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Boil Time:</i></b> 60 min</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Equipment:</i></b> Big Pot, 40L, 60min</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>End of Boil Volume</i></b> 44.20 l</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Brewhouse Efficiency:</i></b> 72.00 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Final Bottling Volume:</i></b> 39.50 l</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Est Mash Efficiency</i></b> 76.5 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Fermentation:</i></b> Ale, Two Stage</td>
<td width="52%"><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2"><div align="center">
<b><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;">Ingredients</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><div align="center">
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="BeerSmithTable" style="width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="left" width="22%"><b>
Amt</b></th>
<th align="left" width="50%"><b>
Name</b></th>
<th align="left" width="11%"><b>
Type</b></th>
<th align="left" width="4%"><b>
#</b></th>
<th align="left" width="11%"><b>
%/IBU</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">7.50 kg</td>
<td align="left">Canadian 2 Row Pale Malt (2.0 SRM)</td>
<td align="left">Grain</td>
<td align="left">1</td>
<td align="left">80.5 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">0.68 kg</td>
<td align="left">Munich 10L (Briess) (10.0 SRM)</td>
<td align="left">Grain</td>
<td align="left">2</td>
<td align="left">7.3 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">0.68 kg</td>
<td align="left">Victory Malt (25.0 SRM)</td>
<td align="left">Grain</td>
<td align="left">3</td>
<td align="left">7.3 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">0.45 kg</td>
<td align="left">Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)</td>
<td align="left">Grain</td>
<td align="left">4</td>
<td align="left">4.9 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">14.17 g</td>
<td align="left">Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">5</td>
<td align="left">8.1 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">14.17 g</td>
<td align="left">Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">6</td>
<td align="left">11.5 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">14.17 g</td>
<td align="left">Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 20.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">7</td>
<td align="left">4.9 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">14.17 g</td>
<td align="left">Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">8</td>
<td align="left">6.9 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">1.00 Items</td>
<td align="left">Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins)</td>
<td align="left">Fining</td>
<td align="left">9</td>
<td align="left">-</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">14.17 g</td>
<td align="left">Amarillo [9.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">10</td>
<td align="left">1.6 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">7.00 g</td>
<td align="left">Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">11</td>
<td align="left">1.1 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">14.17 g</td>
<td align="left">Amarillo [9.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">12</td>
<td align="left">1.5 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">7.00 g</td>
<td align="left">Simcoe [13.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 10.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">13</td>
<td align="left">1.0 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">1.0 pkg</td>
<td align="left">Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007) [35.49 ml]</td>
<td align="left">Yeast</td>
<td align="left">14</td>
<td align="left">-</td>
</tr>
<tr><td align="left">28.35 g</td>
<td align="left">Amarillo [9.20 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">15</td>
<td align="left">0.0 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">28.35 g</td>
<td align="left">Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 3.0 Days</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">16</td>
<td align="left">0.0 IBUs</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2"><div align="center">
<span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"><b>Beer Profile</b></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Est Original Gravity:</i></b> 1.051 SG</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Measured Original Gravity:</i></b> 1.053 SG</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><i><b>Est Final Gravity:</b></i> 1.012 SG</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Measured Final Gravity:</i></b> 1.012 SG</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Estimated Alcohol by Vol:</i></b> 5.2 %</td>
<td width="52%"><i><b>Actual Alcohol by Vol:</b></i> 5.4 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><i><b>Bitterness:</b></i> 36.7 IBUs</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Calories:</i></b> 497.1 kcal/l</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><i><b>Est Color:</b></i> 6.1 SRM</td>
<td width="52%"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2"><div align="center">
<span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"><b>Mash Profile</b></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Mash Name:</i></b> Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Total Grain Weight:</i></b> 9.31 kg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Sparge Water:</i></b> 33.24 l</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Grain Temperature:</i></b> 17.3 C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Sparge Temperature:</i></b> 75.6 C</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Tun Temperature:</i></b> 17.3 C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Adjust Temp for Equipment:</i></b> TRUE</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Mash PH:</i></b> 5.20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><div align="center">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="BeerSmithTable" style="width: 100%;">
<caption>Mash Steps</caption>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="left" width="19%"><b>
Name</b></th>
<th align="left" width="54%"><b>
Description</b></th>
<th align="left" width="12%"><b>
Step Temperature</b></th>
<th align="left" width="12%"><b>
Step Time</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Mash In</td>
<td align="left">Add 24.54 l of water at 75.3 C</td>
<td align="left">66.7 C</td>
<td align="left">60 min</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b><i>Sparge Step:</i></b> Batch sparge with 2 steps (9.01l, 24.23l) of 80 C water</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b><i>Mash Notes:</i></b> Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2"><div align="center">
<span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"><b>Carbonation and Storage</b></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Carbonation Type:</i></b> Keg</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Volumes of CO2:</i></b> 2.3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Pressure/Tempt:</i></b> 12 PSI @ 6C</td>
<td width="52%"><br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><br /></td><td width="52%"></td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><div align="right">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Created with </span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.beersmith.com/">BeerSmith</a></span></i></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-63944557457033433802017-03-09T09:59:00.001-05:002017-09-04T14:21:16.233-04:00New Mailer System!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2qnP3L32CQiNEX93Q7IMNzfF8H6mYDDJa0nDcLQIY-4hv7CSHP9_8oqUBTeuxL6LDA7kzOAMjVIzF710GCf03Gtyuf7ljVrn5jKwYo6L7zBoJFXKykEMBPPnRNLhyphenhyphenU2aUje996o3D_7tW/s1600/NewMailer01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2qnP3L32CQiNEX93Q7IMNzfF8H6mYDDJa0nDcLQIY-4hv7CSHP9_8oqUBTeuxL6LDA7kzOAMjVIzF710GCf03Gtyuf7ljVrn5jKwYo6L7zBoJFXKykEMBPPnRNLhyphenhyphenU2aUje996o3D_7tW/s320/NewMailer01.png" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mailer showing dividing lines, numbering & yeast deposited<br />
on spots 1, 3, 6, 8, 9 and 11. Click for larger image.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As many of my readers know, I run an <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/p/yeast-exchange.html">extensive yeast bank</a> and frequently exchange yeasts with other homebrewers from around the world. In the past I've used <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2013/08/mailing-yeast-part-ii.html">a simple mailer system</a> that allows yeast to be sent by letter mail. While this system worked very well, it had two major drawbacks. Firstly, it was a lot of work to prepare the mailers, taking me about an hour to prepare enough mailers to exchange 48 or so yeasts. Secondly, they did not always pack nicely into envelopes, leading to a few envelopes being returned by the post for being too thick for letter mail.<br />
<br />
For my last few exchanges I've used a modified form of this mailer system. It is much easier to setup than the old mailers (enough mailers for hundreds of yeasts can be prepared in the time needed to make enough of the old mailers for a dozen yeast), and packs very nicely into envelopes. The only downside is that it is a little more work on the end of the recipient, as multiple yeast are now packed onto a single card.<br />
<br />
Full details of the new mailer system can be found below the fold.<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<h3>
Making the New Mailers</h3>
<ol>
<li>Using a pencil (not pens, as some have ink toxic to yeast), divide a card of 7.5 cm x 10 cm blotting paper (or a 4" x 6" index card) into thirds along the short-side and quarters along the long-side, creating 12 squares. These squares should be a minimum of 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm (approximately 1" x 1") in size - smaller sizes are more difficult to work with.</li>
<li>Label the top-left corner as "#1" and the top-right corner as "#4", on the same side of the card as the dividing lines drawn in step #1.</li>
<li>Cut a piece of foil large enough to fold around the paper as an envelope; foil section should be ~1 cm wider than the mailer, and 2.5 times as tall.</li>
<li>Fold the foil along the horizontal axes to form an envelope around the card which opens from the top. At this point the envelope should still be open at the sides. Once folded, open the envelope flap, but leave the envelope "body" closed around the card.</li>
<li>Seal the sides of the envelope by folding the foil tightly against the sides of the card, continuing the folds along the envelope flap. </li>
<ul>
<li>Be sure to fold the sides onto the same side of the card as the envelope "flap" closes.</li>
</ul>
<li>Close the flap - if folded properly the backside of the mailer should be smooth with all folds on one side - this is critical to ensure easy loading and recovery of yeast from the card.</li>
<li>Sterilise by autoclaving or pressure-cooking the envelope. If using a pressure cooker, be sure to place mailers on a surface above the level of the water in the pot - you want to steam, not soak the mailers during sterilisation. If required, dry mailers by placing in a still-warm oven.</li>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjNIXMel3Pt_ISzzJUInS1TskO2NmJM2thZRkI0cnCLSM93VLq8vzbQUcv3BJsiHm2LJVCOIVEVLzteaQMc2ppWY7_qlmGpQX3BvVFy7VBfAGBCKUIWORmAHwc1DyBHrjvj6BoM0O3e6Jq/s1600/NewMailerMontage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjNIXMel3Pt_ISzzJUInS1TskO2NmJM2thZRkI0cnCLSM93VLq8vzbQUcv3BJsiHm2LJVCOIVEVLzteaQMc2ppWY7_qlmGpQX3BvVFy7VBfAGBCKUIWORmAHwc1DyBHrjvj6BoM0O3e6Jq/s400/NewMailerMontage.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Folding the mailer:</b> (click for large image)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">1) With the lines on the card facing upwards fold the bottom </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">of the foil</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> upwards until it meets the top of the card.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">2) Fold the top of the foil downwards to form a flap, the re-open the flap.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">3) Fold the sides of the foil inwards, tightly enclosing the card. Folds should</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> extend through the flap.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">4) Close the flap to seal the </span>envelope<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> around the card. Mailer is now ready to</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> be </span>sterilised<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">.</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<hr />
<h3>
Loading the Mailer</h3>
<div>
Note: loading of the mailer should always be performed close to a Bunsen burner or alcohol lamp. These will provide air currents that protect the mailer from becoming contaminated with yeasts, fungi and bacteria in the air. I recommend following the guidelines in my videos on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtXrsvNLCxk" target="_blank">preparing a work area</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFG6v2pQUDo" target="_blank">building/using an alcohol lamp</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0GE3oTMZrY" target="_blank">aseptic techniques</a> to learn the best practices to use when loading mailers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><i>Pre-Loading Preparation:</i></b></div>
<div>
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div>
<i>Note: this section assumes your yeast are prepared and ready to load; specific instructions for preparing liquid and solid cultures for mailing can be found below.</i></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Prepare a clean <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtXrsvNLCxk" target="_blank">work area</a>.</li>
<li>Light your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFG6v2pQUDo" target="_blank">alcohol lamp</a> or Bunsen burner.</li>
<li>Carefully unfold the top and sides of the envelope.</li>
<li>Using forceps/tweezers steralized in the flame of your burner to fold open the bottom of the envelope, fully exposing the card. <u>Be careful to never touch the card or inside of the envelope with anything other than flame-steralized tweezers/forceps.</u></li>
<li>Place the card as close as possible to the flame of your burner.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2qnP3L32CQiNEX93Q7IMNzfF8H6mYDDJa0nDcLQIY-4hv7CSHP9_8oqUBTeuxL6LDA7kzOAMjVIzF710GCf03Gtyuf7ljVrn5jKwYo6L7zBoJFXKykEMBPPnRNLhyphenhyphenU2aUje996o3D_7tW/s1600/NewMailer01.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2qnP3L32CQiNEX93Q7IMNzfF8H6mYDDJa0nDcLQIY-4hv7CSHP9_8oqUBTeuxL6LDA7kzOAMjVIzF710GCf03Gtyuf7ljVrn5jKwYo6L7zBoJFXKykEMBPPnRNLhyphenhyphenU2aUje996o3D_7tW/s320/NewMailer01.png" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Mailer opened and loaded from liquid cultures. Burner is located<br />
off-image, <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">less than 1 cm to the left of the card.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>Note: If loading only a portion of squares it is best to space the yeast as far apart as possible (see image above and at top of post for an example)</i></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><i>From a liquid culture:</i></b></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Setup a fresh yeast culture (e.g. in a dedicated tube, or a starter for a bew-day). Grow to completion.</li>
<li>Allow the yeast to settle to the bottom of the container and decant as much liquid as you can.</li>
<li>Transfer the yeast to a single square on the mailer, transferring as thick a yeast slurry as possible. If using blotting paper up to 150 ul of liquid can be transferred to each square, if using an index card up to 50 ul of yeast can be transferred. </li>
<ol>
<li>Always deposit the yeast in the centre of the box you are loading.</li>
<li>Stop loading once the liquid portion gets close to the edge of the box you are loading.</li>
<li>Options for transfers include:</li>
<ul>
<li>Use an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation_loop" target="_blank">inoculation loop</a> to transfer slurry to the card. Most inoculation loops hold 10 ul or 20 ul of material, so multiple transfers will be required to maximise loading of the card. Be sure to use proper aseptic technique during this step - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0GE3oTMZrY" target="_blank">see my video on aseptic techniques</a> if you need help in this area.</li>
<li>Use a sanitised eye dropper. As with the inoculation loop, transfer the thickest slurry possible. Be sure to sanitise between yeasts if loading the mailer with multiple yeast strains.</li>
<li>Use a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_displacement_pipette" target="_blank">micropipettor</a> with a sterile tip, using a fresh tips for each yeast strain you load on the card.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<li>Once loaded, immediately close fold the envelope around the card, being careful not to touch the inside of the envelope or card.</li>
<ul>
<li>Be sure to fold the foil back over the card - you do not want the foil to slide along the surface of the card, as this may cross-contaminate yeast.</li>
</ul>
</ol>
<div>
<div>
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div>
<b><i>From a solid-medium culture:</i></b></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Setup a fresh yeast culture an an appropriate solid media (petri dish or slant). Grow until you have medium-sized colonies. See my videos on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EKb6AcaEBg&list=PLZ3Z2428mCTqDFK-3ZSNpZBXJfTaMtRXE&index=5" target="_blank">making</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCOtWztCObY&list=PLZ3Z2428mCTqDFK-3ZSNpZBXJfTaMtRXE&index=4" target="_blank">using</a> petri dishes, and on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMFWHm61NEU&list=PLZ3Z2428mCTqDFK-3ZSNpZBXJfTaMtRXE&index=7" target="_blank">making/using slants</a>, for additional information on these culture methods.</li>
<li>Using an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation_loop" target="_blank">inoculation loop</a>, pick a few colonies off of the plate/slant.</li>
<li>Smear the colonies onto the square of the card you are loading. Start in the middle of the square and smear in a circular direction, moving outwards to form a spiral. </li>
<ol>
<li>Attempt to cover ~2/3rds of the square with the yeast to transfer slurry to the card. </li>
<li>If needed, additional colonies can be picked to cover the area required.</li>
</ol>
<li>Once loaded, immediately close fold the envelope around the card, being careful not to touch the inside of the envelope or card.</li>
<ul>
<li>Be sure to fold the foil back over the card - you do not want the foil to slide along the surface of the card, as this may cross-contaminate yeast.</li>
</ul>
<div>
</div>
</ol>
<div>
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div>
<b><i>Mailing the Mailer:</i></b></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzPmqa1mBEOhas4xwyJ8Uk6vA1oLPRmVNQ3UDKA2P4yBomJtIaOcgSjgtbWjJNjBVulnJeBMyPCO78Z-bFVWx9ok2qDH-fT2umrlGqUKSkWayIGRdI9ETNyuDgmRK62AqEcUo8IpxCU-O/s1600/NewMailer02.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPzPmqa1mBEOhas4xwyJ8Uk6vA1oLPRmVNQ3UDKA2P4yBomJtIaOcgSjgtbWjJNjBVulnJeBMyPCO78Z-bFVWx9ok2qDH-fT2umrlGqUKSkWayIGRdI9ETNyuDgmRK62AqEcUo8IpxCU-O/s200/NewMailer02.png" width="175" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mailer with customs<br />
declaration and loading guide</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
These card-based mailers will fit into a standard small letter envelope (2 1/8" x 3 5/8"). Up to 3 mailers can fit into a single envelope without exceeding the maximum envelop thickness or weight set by Canada Post for letter mail (check your countries regulations if not in Canada for thickness and size limitations).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While you can send the mailer(s) on their own, I recommend including a printout of which yeast is located in each square. If shipping internationally I also recommend including a shippers declaration, in case the envelope is opened by customs. My standard declaration reads:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<i>This envelope contains dried and inactive brewers yeast sterilely deposited into protective foil envelopes. These yeasts are being shared between hobbyist home brewers and have no commercial value. These yeasts are not hazardous to humans, livestock or plants. Shipment of these non-hazardous organisms is not regulated under the UN's Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, nor under the transportation acts of the sending or recipient countries.</i></div>
<hr />
<h3>
Recovering Yeast from Mailers</h3>
</div>
<div>
While preparing and loading the mailers is easier than my old system, recovering the yeast is slightly more difficult, although well within the capabilities of most home brewers. Unloading of the mailer should always be performed close to a Bunsen burner or alcohol lamp. These will provide air currents that protect the mailer from becoming contaminated with yeasts, fungi and bacteria in the air. I recommend following the guidelines in my videos on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtXrsvNLCxk" target="_blank">preparing a work area</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFG6v2pQUDo" target="_blank">building/using an alcohol lamp</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0GE3oTMZrY" target="_blank">aseptic techniques</a> to learn the best practices to use when loading mailers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The mailer should always be stored resting on the inside of the foil envelope, or on a freshly sanitised piece of foil. Never touch the card or foil with anything other than flame-sanitised forceps/tweezers.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><i>Removing yeast from the mailer:</i></b></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Prepare a clean <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtXrsvNLCxk" target="_blank">work area</a>.</li>
<li>Light your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFG6v2pQUDo" target="_blank">alcohol lamp</a> or Bunsen burner.</li>
<li>Prepare <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EKb6AcaEBg&list=PLZ3Z2428mCTqDFK-3ZSNpZBXJfTaMtRXE&index=5" target="_blank">an appropriate type of agar plate</a> or tubes of sterile 1.020 gravity wort.</li>
<li>Carefully unfold the top and sides of the envelope.</li>
<li>Using forceps/tweezers steralized in the flame of your burner to fold open the bottom of the envelope, fully exposing the card. <u>Be careful to never touch the card or inside of the envelope with anything other than flame-steralized tweezers/forceps.</u></li>
<ul>
<li>Be sure you unfold such that the foil is pulled away from the card, and not dragged across the card. Dragging the foil on the card can lad to cross-contamination<u>.</u></li>
</ul>
<li>Place the card as close as possible to the flame of your burner.</li>
<li>Using scissors steralized by passing them repeatedly, but quickly, through your flame, cut out the first yeast (see image below for clarity):</li>
<ol>
<li>Be sure the scissors are not over heated; if they are too hot they will kill the yeast. To cool, without contamination, simply hold them beside and slightly below your flame for 30 seconds or so.</li>
<li>Holding the card with flame-steralized (and cooled) tweezers/forceps, and starting at the yeast in square #1, cut the yeast from the card:</li>
<ol>
<li>Create a flap containing the centre of the deposited yeast by making two downward cuts from the top of the card.</li>
<li>Free the strip by either cutting from the side of the card, or by folding the strip upwards and cutting across its base.</li>
<li>Hold the strip across a tube of wort or agar plate, and cut such that the middle region of the yeast spot drops into the wort or onto the agar surface of the plate.</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<li>Repeat for the remaining yeasts in the top row. Then cut off the residual material from the top row, and repeat for the second and third rows of yeast.</li>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqqLgz2tm1523MNpYGNGjRzbCP0SyTMzN5GXNSW76W3YXY7rPw5aZTA520t0zvgO0BO6Bq0quQqHjl1OlL34lrsl_H1Rg7m4CaVE-PGULqxzvSUMGdczDXDM2ZFEKSvgNYRWjqNmb6lRnz/s1600/NewMailer03.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqqLgz2tm1523MNpYGNGjRzbCP0SyTMzN5GXNSW76W3YXY7rPw5aZTA520t0zvgO0BO6Bq0quQqHjl1OlL34lrsl_H1Rg7m4CaVE-PGULqxzvSUMGdczDXDM2ZFEKSvgNYRWjqNmb6lRnz/s1600/NewMailer03.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b>Removing yeast from card:</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">1) Starting from upper edge (thin dotted lines),</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> cut strip containing the middle half of the yeast</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">2) Free the strip by either cutting from the side of</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> the card, or by folding the strip upwards and</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> cutting across the bottom of the strip (medium </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> dotted line)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">3) Cut the centre of the yeast spot off of the tap,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> allowing the central region to drop into your liquid</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> culture, or onto an agar plate.</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
</div>
</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-40940063550358164832017-02-08T13:59:00.001-05:002017-09-04T14:21:35.042-04:00Cider 2016<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwuUE6assaq1yKZOVwHZAHJKGB5sEf1zxkVUTTTXXwpIdv_DFQh3EY3CN6YC9qH8urKH7AjXMeZkgEAX5Y-PFDk-iUNhlyr5kc9yvyMXS9KxcgBPRsncpUkzuOKYpWqTzsy8-MNsf4teG1/s1600/2016Cider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwuUE6assaq1yKZOVwHZAHJKGB5sEf1zxkVUTTTXXwpIdv_DFQh3EY3CN6YC9qH8urKH7AjXMeZkgEAX5Y-PFDk-iUNhlyr5kc9yvyMXS9KxcgBPRsncpUkzuOKYpWqTzsy8-MNsf4teG1/s320/2016Cider.jpg" width="176" /></a>Every year I brew <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/search?q=cider">a few batches of cider</a>, using cider pressed at a local cider mill. 2016 was no exception, although I scaled back this years batch of cider to a single batch...mostly because we've still got two half-batches worth of 2015's cider remaining.<br />
<br />
This years batch is a bit of an experiment, but one which came out fairly well. To backtrack a bit, last year I prepared a batch of cider which I allowed to ferment using only the wild yeast present in the cider. This cider was good, but not great - it was extremely dry, and the earthy/musty flavour was a little more intense than SWIMBO would prefer (I liked the strength of it, but I brew cider for her, not for me).<br />
<br />
This year I took a hybrid approach, to get the higher complexity of a wild ferment while restraining the wild character to a more modest level.<br />
<br />
The one issue I ran into this year was the raw cider itself. The cidery which sells my brew club cider produces raw cider for local grocery stores. As a consequence, they do not worry about the blend of apples used, so long as the sweetness falls within a specified range. With alcoholic cider making, professional cider makers will use deliberate mixes of different types of apples to get a proper sugar content, while making sure that the amount of residual tanins and acids are appropriate to lend the fermented cider a nice balance. The cider we received this year was very sweet (O.G. of 1.052), and was clearly made almost entirely of dessert apples as there was almost no acidity or tanic character to the raw juice. As a result the fermented cider was quite dry, thin bodied, and somewhat weak tasting - issues I addressed by an alternate method of back-sweetening which was a smashing success.<br />
<br />
Details & tasting notes below the fold.<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<h3>
Brew-Day</h3>
<div>
The brewing of this cider was quite simple - 20L of raw cider was combined with 3 g of potassium metabisulfite and left to sit for 12 hours. This kills off any residual wild yeasts or bacteria, allowing me to specifically dose in the yeast and bugs I want. At the 12-hour mark I added a sachet of pectic enzyme (intended for 23L of wine), and let the cider sit an additional 12 hours. At this point I added my go-to cider yeast (Nottingham), plus a 1-cup starter of the wild yeast/bug harvested from last years wild cider. This was left at room temperature for 2 weeks to ferment.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Ageing</h3>
<div>
14 days after pitching the yeast, the cider was transferred to a fresh carboy and moved to our cellar which sits at 12-16C. It was allowed to sit, undisturbed, for 1.5 months during which time it developed a bit of a pelicle and developed a small degree of haze. At the 1.5 month mark I added chitosan/klenisol (clarifying agents usually used in wine making), and let the carboy sit for an additional 2 weeks.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At this point the cider was clear and tasting clean. But, as mentioned above, the acidity and body of the cider was lacking; it was also extremely dry, to the point that even I - a lover of dry cider - thought it was too much. To fix this the cider was transferred to a keg and stabilised by the addition of 2.5 teaspoons of potassium sorbate and 1/4 teaspoon of potassium metabisulfate. I then added a single packet of reserve juice I didn't add to a batch of Gwerztraminer wine to backsweeten and provide a little more body, sweetness and acidity. The keg was then force carbonated.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<hr />
<h3>
Tasting Notes</h3>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Appearance:</i> As you can see from the above image, the cider is a very pale straw colour, highly effervescent, and pours with a course white head which persists for several minutes.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Aroma:</i> Strong aroma of apples; most similar to a gala-type apple. A very slight mustiness (earthy/leather) sometimes comes out in the aroma.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Flavour:</i> The flavour of this cider is excellent. It has a modest apple character, well balanced by a touch of sweetness, with a subtle earthy-funk from the wild yeasts adding a touch of complexity. The acidity of the cider is very low, to the point it is a noticeable flaw. Aftertaste is apple and a touch of sweetness.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Mouthfeel:</i> Airy, light and effervescent - everything a cider should be. One of the more refreshing beverages I've ever had on-top.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Overall:</i> I think this is the best batch of cider I've ever made, although my 2014 vintage would be a close second. The balance of flavours is fantastic, other than the lack of acidity. But even with this minor flaw, I'm quite happy with the way this cider turned out. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The low acidity is likely a product of two factors - the initial low acidity of the must, and the fact that I left the cider on its lees for 1.5 months. This can greatly reduce acidity in a cider, as lactobacilli in the lees will ferment malic acid (which has a strong acid character) to milder lactic acid. This decreases the acidic sensation of the cider, but can easily be limited by transfering cider off of its lees a week or two following transfer to secondary.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-9993451199755189912017-02-07T07:54:00.002-05:002017-09-04T14:21:53.110-04:00She's Just That PrettyI've already blogged about my "Sour Grapes" berliner from late 2016, but she's a pretty beer and worthy of another photo!<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJHwhrQNQEWWo2OxhN-Q50_m7q1oBDlg4VcmdRkxswLUuhyphenhyphenxv9fPv4dpgxo24Vi8Z9Z4e1ANviIcexNOIeh63sQTI3g5me-KKLAj5kP9jClX9q2VoX5poWkMMmw20AnLoiHAPfIRYIzodj/s1600/20170206_173323-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJHwhrQNQEWWo2OxhN-Q50_m7q1oBDlg4VcmdRkxswLUuhyphenhyphenxv9fPv4dpgxo24Vi8Z9Z4e1ANviIcexNOIeh63sQTI3g5me-KKLAj5kP9jClX9q2VoX5poWkMMmw20AnLoiHAPfIRYIzodj/s640/20170206_173323-1.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-28746779550807858712017-01-11T09:30:00.000-05:002017-09-04T14:22:30.960-04:00The Power of Staged Fermentation - Sour Grapes<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIIFayHiS6tf8qWworTzpvSENQqTVNwvCeeGqNq2HKj0i8qRCGgUCAN6pDJEstb3t7piJC-xwDNKVCJFG2PnJ6aEI3lAaNIdcCP5qK2ZGLlGogM_FpQV9RtCnlELwK7UOpfO8qyMLrYWMY/s1600/SourGrapesMontage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIIFayHiS6tf8qWworTzpvSENQqTVNwvCeeGqNq2HKj0i8qRCGgUCAN6pDJEstb3t7piJC-xwDNKVCJFG2PnJ6aEI3lAaNIdcCP5qK2ZGLlGogM_FpQV9RtCnlELwK7UOpfO8qyMLrYWMY/s640/SourGrapesMontage.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Progression of the beer from: Day of grape addition (left) to 4 months later in the glass (right)</td></tr>
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I am a bit of an experimentalist at heart, and one area in which I do a lot of "experimental" brews is using the staged addition of pure cultures of wild or commercial yeasts & bugs, pitched at varying times, to produce unique sour beers that cannot be produced through conventional brewing techniques. I've made beers with similar complexity to classical sour beers using staged-addition of bugs, but that's not what this post is about. Rather, this post is about using these methods to make good beer from difficult ingredients. In this case, wild grapes.<br />
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Wild grapes are pretty common place across North America, and they come in two "flavours" - European wine grapes that have escaped the vineyard and native species of grapes. Wild European grapes are pretty similar to the grapes you buy in the grocery store, and can be used as would any other wine grape in sour beer brewing. Truly wild grapes are another beast. In fact, my first attempt to brew with these turned a rather lacklustre 2-year old golden sour into an unpalatable mess. Thankfully I only added grapes to one gallon of that beer, and rescued the rest with a more classical cherry addition! There have been attempts since, and none (until now) were worth writing about.<br />
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There are nearly 70 species of wild grapes native to North America, so I'm not sure how true the following statements will be for brewers in other regions of N. America (or elsewhere), but for people in Ontario and the north-eastern US, this should be relatively accurate. The three species of wild grape native to my area (<i>Vitis riparia</i>, <i>V. aestivalis</i> and <i>V. labrusca</i>) are quite different from their European cousins. These grapes are much more intense than their European cousins; while the juice of European varieties are generally used to make wine undiluted, our local wild grapes need to have their juice diluted between 1:2 and 1:5 to produce a wine with a tolerable taste. The grapes themselves are quite small (0.5 cm diameter or smaller), have a very thick and tannic skin, have a much higher malic acid content, and have a much larger seed portion (relative to the amount of fruit) compared to their European cousins. And it is those characteristics that make them hard to incorporate into sour beer - essentially, enough grapes to give a nice grape flavour also imparts a lot of tannins, malic acid and grape-seed character.<br />
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Tannins are astringent and drying, and while nice in small amounts, they can quickly become overwhelming and unpleasant. Indeed, tannins are often made by plants for the purpose of deterring animals from eating the plant - the term "tannin" comes from their ability to tan leather, so you can imagine how excess amounts make your mouth feel. Malic acid is also quite harsh - almost as harsh as acetic acid - and like tannins can be pleasant in small amounts but becomes harsh and overwhelming quite easily. The seeds of grapes are also problematic - they contain some earthy and woody flavours that are pleasant, but the high seed content of wild grapes means these characters can be somewhat strong, and in my experience, clash with brett phenolics.<br />
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My attempts at using these grapes in conventional sours failed because of these characteristics - the malic acid would make an already acidic beer far too acidic and harsh, the seed character would amp up the funk, which in turn clashed with the high levels of tannins. Even pressing the grapes for juice doesn't solve these issues (aside from the grape seed flavour) to any meaningful extent. But where traditional sour brewing methods failed, "experimental" methods succeeded.<br />
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More Below the Fold<br />
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A Quick Caution</h3>
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Before I go into the meat of this post I want to quick caution readers about a potential risk of collecting wild grapes. All species of wild grapes are edible, but there are two similar-looking plants which are toxic - moonseed and virginia creeper. So it is very important that you know how to tell them apart. Because the morphology of wild grapes varies across the 70 or so species found in North America, and I believe there is also multiple species of moonseed and virginia creeper, I'm not going to post on how to tell them apart - rather, I'd recommend you look for a local (to you) source of this information, or find an experienced grape connoisseur to help you out.</div>
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If you're not sure what you have, don't pick it.</div>
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Conceptualisation and Recipe</h3>
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This recipe involved some planning on my part, as the recipe and brewing method required that 1) I be ale to control the degree of acidification to a high degree, 2) that I be able to reduce the malic acid content of the beer, and 3) that the <i>Brettanomyces</i> added to the beer not be overly phenolic. If I could achieve that then I should be able to make an intensely fruity beer with the grapes. The later goal is easy - <i>B. claussenii</i> is not overly funky and should act to enhance the fruit character of the grapes. But requirement 1 & 2 are a bit more difficult.</div>
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The solution to requirement #1 is a kettle sour - sour the beer to the desired acidity, then kill off the <i>Lactobacillus</i> by boiling the beer. However, the only way to address requirement #2 is <i>Lactobacillus</i> - most lactobacilli can engage in malo-lactic fermentation, in which harsh malic acid is converted into softer lactic acid. As luck would have it, a local brewer friend of mine had recently isolated the ideal <i>Lactobacillus</i> for solving this issue from a wild ferment - it produces a nice but not overly acidic acidity when used in the kettle, and was of a (suspected) species that is a malo-lactic fermenter.</div>
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The recipe has already been posted; I did a double-batch <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/09/one-brew-day-several-sourish-beers.html">Berliner Weise</a> back in September, half used to make a really excellent dry-hopped Berliner Weisse, a small amount used to try an experimental yeast, and the other half used to prepare this beer. The recipe formulation was fairly straight forward - conventional Berliner Wisse grain bill, no kettle hops, with the wort pasteurised following the sparge but not following souring.</div>
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The half set aside for this beer was fermented with US-05 following souring. As it was souring wild grapes were picked, washed, destemmed, and frozen overnight to release their juices. 2.5kg (5.5 lbs) of the uncrushed grapes were then added to secondary, along with a pitch containing three different <i>B. claussenii</i> isolates.
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Ageing</h3>
As you can see in the header image, within minutes the grapes had stained the beer a soft purple, which darkened dramatically over the ~3.5 months the fruit was left in contact with the beer. One month into secondary and the beer became what I had feared - harshly malic and tannic - but the <i>Lactobacillus</i> did its job and over the next few months reduced the malic character, eliminating it completely by packaging. In parallel the fruitiness of the beer has increased - how much of that is due to the Brett, and how much is an apparent increase in fruitiness due to decreasing harshness of the beer I cannot say, but it is nicely fruity. Unlike previous batches a strong seed character did not appear - perhaps because the grapes were not crushed this time, or perhaps because its a different species of grape or perhaps even terroir - the birds had denuded our normal picking area, forcing us to pick grapes on the opposite side of the road. Maybe its even an effect of the particular type of <i>Brettanomyces</i> used. Regardless, this aspect of the beer is not as developed as originally envisioned.<br />
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Tasting Notes</h3>
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Alright, that was a lot of writing to get to what was supposed to be the feature of this post - the tasting notes.</div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Appearance:</i> The beer pours with a deep red body and pink head. Even though this beer was kettle soured, it has a persistent and rocky head.</div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Aroma:</i> Grapes and lactic acid dominate the aroma of this beer.</div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Flavour:</i> The flavour of this beer is excellent. The beer is notably sour - much more sour than the dry-hopped version of the beer thanks to the malo-lactic fermentation, but the sourness is balanced and smooth. I'm not sure if this is a product of the strain of lacto used, or because of lingering acids from the grapes, or because of flora from the grapes, but the acidity more complex than the 1-dimensional acidity I normally expect from kettle souring. Alongside this acidity is an intense fruitiness - the fruit character is unique and hard to describe, but is far closer to a blend of blueberries and raspberries than grapes/wine. If you've ever had wild grape wine or jelly you'll recognise the taste. This intense fruitiness provides a sweet character, despite the dryness of the beer (FG of 1.002), which nicely balances the acidity. What is missing though is the expected character of the grape seeds; as I mentioned above I was expecting this character to be intense, and dialled back on the brett to accommodate this. However, the seed character is completely absent, leaving this aspect of the beer wanting. I've bottled a portion of this batch with some <i>B. lambicus</i> in the hops that some balancing phenolics will form in the bottle. The aftertaste is an intense fruitiness and lingering sourness.</div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Mouthfeel:</i> The higher acidity of this beer produces a slight puckering effect, with the combinatino of acid and carbonation producing a "sizzling" sensation on the tongue. The tannins from the grapes provides additional mouthfeel, so the beer feels thicker than its extremely low gravity would suggest. The beer finishes dry and crisp and not at all watery.</div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Overall:</i> Overall this is a very good beer and one that I am quite proud of. The beer has an intense sourness which is nicely balanced by an intense fruitiness. It is crisp and refreshing, but complex enough to make it a beer to drink slowly and savour. What is missing is some phenolics, with either a more intense brett character, more grape-seed character, oaking, or some combination of the three required to provide a bit more interest in the background of the beer.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-47190762681588984702017-01-05T10:50:00.005-05:002017-09-04T14:22:58.019-04:00Fact of Fiction - Can Pathogens Survive in Beer? The RDWHAHB EditionIts time for the third instalment of my pseudo-series <i>Can Pathogens Survive in Beer</i> (<a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2014/02/fact-or-fiction-can-pathogens-survive.html">Part 1 - of course they can</a>, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/08/fact-or-fiction-can-pathogens-survive.html">Part 2 - Moulds</a>). To summarise parts I and II, yes there are a number of pathogens that survive in beer, and yes, moulds can release poisonous mycotoxins into beer, but generally speaking proper sanitation and controlling your brewing environment can eliminate these risks.<br />
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Today's edition is a little different; my previous posts get "cited" a lot by people who seem to have been scared by my posts away from testing new organisms as potential brewing bugs. As one example, a few months ago at <a href="https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjG6t_VnKvRAhWi7IMKHTjvBuwQFggaMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.milkthefunk.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNHOy5yyd-FLgkAe95vkR2FRDclgVQ&sig2=zrESZY0ED2jycQWunKdlEQ&bvm=bv.142059868,d.amc" target="_blank">Milk the Funk</a> a discussion on the potential use of <i>Lachancea fermentati</i> (a lactic-acid producing yeast) to make a "single organism" sour-beer. The interest readily split into two groups after <a href="http://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2334-14-250" target="_blank">a case report</a> was found of a patient in Texas who suffered fungemia (blood infection) with <i>Lachancea fermentati</i>. This led many people who at first were anxious to try brewing with this yeast to become fearful about even letting it near their brewery. Yet I, and a few others, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.com/2016/09/one-brew-day-several-sourish-beers.html">made beers with this yeast</a>...and we're all still here and no one got sick. So what is going on? Why would I (a microbiologist by trade) risk making a beer with a known pathogen?<br />
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The answer, as always, is below the fold...<br />
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What Makes a Pathogen?</h3>
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Before we delve further into this question, its worth revisiting the topic of what makes a pathogen. The answer is surprisingly unclear - there is no clear-cut or easy way to determine if an organism has pathogenic potential; the reason for this has more to do with the nature of the human body than the microorganisms. Our bodies use a "layered" defence to protect us from microorganisms. The first "layer" is simply barriers - skin, the lining of our lungs and intestines, etc - all are tightly sealed surfaces that act to keep bugs out. But they are also easily penetrated; bona-fide pathogens typically have toxins or other mechanisms that allow them to break down these barriers, but by accident we also "hole" these barriers every day - cuts, abrasions, even the act of digesting foods open up entry points for microorganisms to gain entry into our body.</div>
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The second "layer" is temperature and pH - our bodies normal operating temperature of 37C is well above what most microorganisms find comfortable, while the higher temperatures of a fever push our body temperatures above what many microorganisms (even pathogenic ones) can stand. pH also plays a role; especially in our stomach where very acidic conditions (pH as low as 1.5) kill many microorganisms before they enter the less acidic intestinal tract.</div>
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The third "layer" is nutritional - key elements required for both our health and the growth of pathogens (e.g. iron and other metal ions) are highly sequestered by our bodies, preventing pathogens from gaining access.</div>
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The four "layer" is our immune system - a combination of chemical and cellular processes which have a remarkable ability to target and kill microorganisms.</div>
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Normally, pathogens have ways of overcoming these barriers - as one example, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staphylococcus_aureus" target="_blank">Staphylococcus aureus</a> </i>(an organisms which is an occasional topic of research in my lab) is temperature and acid resistant, secretes streptolysins - toxins which can break open barriers as well as kill immune cells - and secretes siderophores which can"pull" the minute amounts of iron our bodies fail to sequester into the pathogen. Through these (and other) mechanisms, <i>Staphylococcus</i> can readily infect humans...and its burgeoning antibiotic resistance has catapulted it to the top of the list of pathogens of concern in the developed world.</div>
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Most microorganisms lack the arsenal of <i>Staphylococcus</i>, and therefore are not "classical pathogens"...but as you can imagine a number come close, and therefor may be able to produce an infection if something impairs some one of our defence "layers" that the microorganism is otherwise unable to penetrate.</div>
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Consider Saccharomyces</h3>
Every day billions (literally) of meals are consumed containing foods and beverages prepared using <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> - i.e. brewers/bakers yeast. Certainly this microorganism must be safe! But is it? Consider our "layers" of defence:<br />
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<li><i><b>Barriers:</b></i> <i>S. cerevisiae</i> lacks any tools to penetrate our bodies barriers. So were safe...well, except for that irritating detail that dozens of holes get made in our barriers every day through mechanical means; especially in the intestinal tract where we most often encounter <i>S. cerevisiae</i>. Strike 1...</li>
<li><i><b>pH and temperature:</b></i> Three words - sour beer & kveik. In other words, we use <i>S. cerevisiae</i> in the brewing community under pH and temperatures equivalent to those of our bodies. Strike 2...</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;">Nutritional:</i> While <i>S. cerevisiae</i> does not have the nutrient acquisition capabilities of <i>S. aureus</i>, we often forget that <i>S. cerevisiae's</i> natural habitat is the nutrient-poor environment of tree bark. As as such <i>S. cerevisiae</i> has a pretty astounding set of tools to acquire nutrients from nutrient-poor environments (e.g. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8861201" target="_blank">iron</a>). This may not be bona-fide pathogen-level nutrient acquisition, it is a capacity well above what most environmental organisms would likely be equipped with. Strike 3...</li>
<li><i style="font-weight: bold;">Immunological: </i>Luckily, biology isn't 3-strikes and you're out. While <i>S. cerevisiae</i> has the theoretical capability to act as a pathogen (assuming barrier damage), it has absolutely no defences against our immune system. Simply dumping serum (the liquid portion of your blood) from a healthy person onto <i>S. cerevisiae</i> is enough to impair its growth, and my favourite immune cells (macrophages) literally will eat <i>S. cerevisiae</i> like candy.</li>
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So three cheers for our immune system, because it is what allows us to enjoy beer.</div>
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Oh wait, <i>S. cerevisiae</i> infections <a href="http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/12/3/406.short" target="_blank">can and do occur</a> - in one one hospital <a href="http://users.med.up.pt/cc04-10/MicroTextosApoio/Fungemia.pdf" target="_blank">at a reported rate of 6 per month</a>!<br />
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So should we all stop brewing? Of course not! It turns out that fungal infections with yeasts such as <i>Saccharomyces</i>, <i>Picha</i> and <i>Lachancea</i> are relatively common, but only in patients who are severely immunosuppressed, or who are co-infected with a more serious pathogen, or who have had a series of particularly unfortunate medical events (e.g. gut-wall damage during a conventional colonoscopy).</div>
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So Relax, Don't Worry and Have a Home Brew...But Brewed With What?</h3>
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Up to this point I don't think I've done anything to assuage any concerns, but the take-home message is if other things go wrong with your body, the number of organisms that may cause problems is immense (and not limited to those which can be used to make beer). If you are suffering a serious infection, or are immunosuppressed (e.g. undergoing a transplant, cancer treatment, have HIV/AIDS, etc), or have suffered a recent injury to your intestinal tract, you probably should avoid drinking/eating anything prepared with living microorganisms in it - and that includes probiotic pills, yoghurt (yogurt for my American readers), sauerkraut, and so on. And, of course, avoiding any alcohol (even if it is otherwise sterile) is generally a good idea when you're ill or injured.</div>
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But if you're healthy and hale there is very little to worry about. And a few simply guidelines can help ensure your safety.</div>
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<b><i>If brewing using wild/coolship-style beers:</i></b> make sure that you are taking the proper precautions - pre-acidify your wort and maintain proper sanitation (wild brewing is not an excuse for poor sanitation). Once your beer is brewed, do not start sampling until they smell fine, have reached a pH below 4.0, and reached a minimum alcohol content of 2.5%. Anything that smells bad, has mould, or any oddly coloured organisms in it needs to be dumped - as does any beer which does not reach an appropriate pH and alcohol level (again, below 4.0 and above 2.5%, respectively) after a month or so. These simple rules have kept brewers safe and healthy for <strike>decades</strike> <strike>centuries</strike> millennia.</div>
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<b><i>If you're purifying bugs to test as pure cultures:</i></b> make sure you know what you're doing. Your best sources for bugs are always going to be beers that are already proven safe - i.e. a wild brew that has met the conditions mentioned above. Other safe sources are bottle dregs from other wild/sour beers, other fermented foods and human-grade probiotic preparations (pills/drinks/etc). If getting purified organisms from non-food sources (yeast/bacterial banks/suppliers, research scientists, etc), be sure to do your homework. Stay away from bona-fide pathogens such as <i>Candidia albicans</i>, anything from the <i>Cryptococcus</i> and <i>Malassezia</i> genera, and the nastier strains of <i>Rhodotorula</i> (<i>R. mucilaginosa</i>, <i>R. glutinis</i>, and <i>R. minuta</i>). Avoid anything reported to produce mycotoxins. And as always, if in doubt don't use it.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-26614109344630608352017-01-02T16:35:00.001-05:002017-09-04T14:24:19.715-04:00Beer on the Brain - Your Lyin' HydometerI'm excited to announce the next video in my Beer on the Brain series...Your Lyin' Hydrometer. In this video I quickly discuss how hydrometer readings can lead you astray when brewing high gravity beers.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RPfxf-6FcEg" width="560"></iframe>Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-9642047327854414572017-01-01T11:51:00.002-05:002017-09-04T14:24:46.985-04:002016 In ReviewLast night, somewhere around midnight, 2016 came to an end...meaning its time for my annual look back at the year that was.<br />
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">The Good:</i> Both my blog and <a href="http://youtube.com/suigenerisbrewing" target="_blank">youtube channel</a> continue to grow in popularity; my blog reaching 394k views, and my youtube channel 103k views. Most of the beers this year came out either good or excellent, including what may have been <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/09/one-brew-day-several-sourish-beers.html">my best Berliner Weisse to-date</a>. My brewing output is up slightly over last year - 16 beers/ciders, plus a few batches of wine. I added a bunch of fun yeasts to the yeast bank, and found two new loves in the form of <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/11/its-advent-season.html">Kveik yeast</a> and fast-lagering with W34/70.<br />
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Of course, this year was also my 20th brewversary, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/12/20th-brew-versary-extravaganza.html">and the celebration of that went well</a>...and is still continuing.<br />
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<b style="font-style: italic;">The Bad:</b> Brewing output is still down compared to historical norms, and I ran dry a few times this year. My posting of both blog posts and youtube videos has also suffered this year, despite starting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ3Z2428mCTpBuHA95aJvGk03X1QxWYbu" target="_blank">a new series of short videos</a> intended to overcome last years rather meagre offerings.<br />
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">The Ugly:</i> Turns out I was <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/03/that-moment-when-you-realize-youve-been.html">growing my hops all wrong</a>...I hope to fix that in 2017.<br />
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Some Quick Stats</h3>
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<li>Most popular post of 2016: <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.com/2015/03/new-video-casting-agar-plates.html">Casting Agar Plates</a></li>
<li>Most commented post of 2016: <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8081751738815878503#editor/target=post;postID=9210311071416578463;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=11;src=postname">Fact or Fiction: Can Pathogens Survive in Beer (Mould Edition)</a></li>
<li>Most popular video of 2016: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EKb6AcaEBg" target="_blank">Your Home Yeast Lab Made Easy - Making Agar Plates</a></li>
<li>Top Viewing Countries of 2016: United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Barbados, Canada</li>
<li>Top Traffic Sources of 2016: Google, Facebook, Milk the Funk Wiki</li>
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My Favourite Blogs of 2016</h3>
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(in no particular order)</div>
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<li><a href="http://chopandbrew.com/" target="_blank">Chop & Brew</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/" target="_blank">Larsblog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://sourbeerblog.com/" target="_blank">Sour Beer Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://brulosophy.com/" target="_blank">Brulosophy</a></li>
<li><a href="https://phdinbeer.com/" target="_blank">A PhD in Beer</a></li>
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Upcoming in 2017</h3>
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<div>
I cannot claim to have any big things planned for this year - more posts and videos, and ore brewdays, I hope. I also hope to electrify my brew setup...but those plans have been in the works for 3 years and have never advanced past the planning phase, so I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-50476736070728369812016-12-29T17:06:00.002-05:002017-09-04T14:25:39.157-04:0020th Brew-versary Extravaganza!This post is one part of a two-part piece (the other being a video) I've put together as part of my 20th anniversary as a home brewer - a milestone I hit a few weeks ago - December 5, 2016 to be exact.<br />
<br />
To celebrate this milestone I set myself three goals - to prepare a video looking back on 20 years of brewing (embedded below, or available at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/SuiGenerisBrewing" target="_blank">my youtube page</a>), to brew a 20% ABV beer to drink on my 20th brew-versary (<a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2015/02/ambrosio-fallen-monk.html">recipe/brewday here</a>, detailed brewing and tasting notes below the fold), and the biggest challenge of them all - I rebrewed the first beer I ever made, applying my 20 years of experience, to see if I could make a palatable version of that venerable brew (the brewing of which can be found in the video embedded below, tasting notes to follow sometime in early 2017).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Ironically, somewhere along the line I lost track of the true date of my brew-versary, and in many previous posts listed it as December 9...turns out the true first brew day was on a loose-leaf piece of paper jammed in the back of my old log book - a page I found with only weeks to spare, and containing a completely different (yet equally cheap) canned-malt kit beer.<br />
<br />
If you don't want to listen to me ramble on for 20-ish minutes about brewing, that take home from my retrospective video is:<br />
<ol>
<li>The on-line brewing community has grown dramatically, and for the better.</li>
<li>Ingredients are better and more plentiful.</li>
<li>Equipment and techniques have evolved, generally for the better.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Without further ado, the video...<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3kcLVu5NR78" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<div>
Brewing and tasting notes for the 20% beer can be found below the fold...I'll post a followup detailing my attempt at re-brewing my first beer early in 2017.<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<h3>
Ambrosio, The Fallen Monk</h3>
</div>
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbmm7Bc3YVcRhyphenhyphen29O2mpSfIkvYNv6zUIFUMJ6gbamJ0eYx1Jv3_LGIiUWh8MyVlCT6NbhPVZrJudqKgweQe7Mu2CGT3Wp6OrFVKf0i2bvXlSJJhyphenhyphenejcBAMhp9f1kPBXVQjiC9WuUO0De50/s1600/boiling+monk.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbmm7Bc3YVcRhyphenhyphen29O2mpSfIkvYNv6zUIFUMJ6gbamJ0eYx1Jv3_LGIiUWh8MyVlCT6NbhPVZrJudqKgweQe7Mu2CGT3Wp6OrFVKf0i2bvXlSJJhyphenhyphenejcBAMhp9f1kPBXVQjiC9WuUO0De50/s320/boiling+monk.png" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starting a 4 hour boil on the stove, because its too<br />
cold outside for propane</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The goal of this beer is pretty straight forward - I wanted a Belgian-inspired beer with 1% ABV for every year I've been a homebrewer. As described in the <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2015/02/ambrosio-fallen-monk.html">recipe/brew-day post about this beer</a>, I over-designed this beer so that I would get a 22-24% ABV beer if it attenuated as per the norms of the yeast I was using...an unlikely event given the high gravity (I ended up with 20.65% ABV...so its a good thing I over-brewed).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'd direct you to the above link for information on the recipe and brew-day. The details of how I managed the beer to get a 20% ABV beer is what I am going to describe here. To day the brewing of this beer was involved would be an understatement - after the yeast were pitched I interceded with this beer more than any beer I've made previously. The goal was simple - to ease the yeast through the fermentation process, keeping the available fermentables to "reasonable" levels, ensuring yeast health, and generally doing everything I could to keep the yeast going. Here's the blow-by-blow:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>2 weeks prior to brew day:</i> 2 weeks before brewing this beer I prepared a "starter", in the form of a 23L/~4% ABV enkle, using Trappist High Gravity yeast (Wyeast 3787) . This allowed me to prepare a massive pitch of yeast for Ambrosio. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Brewday:</i> During the brewing of Ambrosio, I transfered the enkel "starter beer" into a keg. I then split the yeast cake into three 1L jars - one with a full litre of yeast slurry, the other two with ~0.5L each. The 1L of slurry was then transferred to a cleaned pail-type fermenter and 1L of 1.060 wort (made with water and + DME, and well oxygenated) added to reinvigorate the yeast. This was added ~4 hours prior to the anticipated end of the brew-day, to ensure I was pitching the wort onto vigorously fermenting yeast. Once brewing was complete I transferred the wort into the same fermentation pail and then aerated with filtered air and an aeration stone for 15 minutes. At this point the lid was placed on the fermenter and the fermenter placed in a warm (~22C) room for fermentation.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>~24 hours post-brewday:</i> The following day I added the first 0.5L flask of yeast to an equal volume of 1.080 wort and placed this on my stirplate until the yeast "creamed" (showed signs of activity, ~2 hours post-pitch). The fermenting beer (which was just reaching high kraussen) was then re-oxygenated with filtered air, using a 10 min pulse and aeration stone. Near the end of this aeration period the new yeast was pitched into the beer.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>~48 hours post-brewday:</i> I "activated" the remaining 0.5L of Trappist yeast as above, and added this yeast along with ~15% total fermentables of simple sugar (invert sugar + <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/03/belgian-candi-sugar-part-iii.html">homemade dark candi syrup</a>).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Days 3, 4 and 5:</i> The yeast was gently roused, and CO<sub>2</sub> pushed out of solution, by gentle stirring with a sanitized plastic spoon.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>5 days post-brewday:</i> Primary fermentation had begun to slow, with ~ 25 points in expected gravity points left to go, so I started a large (2.5L) starter of White Labs Super-High Gravity Yeast (WLP099).<br />
<br />
<i>Days 6 and 8:</i> Yeast was roused as on days 3-5.<br />
<br />
<i>~10 days post-brewday:</i> WLP099 starter was decanted and added to the beer, along with 2 teaspoons of wyeast yeast nutrient.<br />
<br />
<i>25 days post-brewday:</i> Beer's gravity had stabilized (with ~ 10 points left to go), so beer was transferred to a carboy and capped the carboy with an airlock.<br />
<br />
<i>5 months post-brewday:</i> Beer had fermented the final 10 points, and as such the beer was moved to my cellar (~10C) for long-term aging.<br />
<br />
<i>1 year, 8 months post-brewday:</i> Beer was transferred to two purged kegs and force-carbonated to 2.5 volumes. Once carbonated, beer was bottled and placed back into the cellar for long-term storage.<br />
<br />
<i>1 year, 9 months, 20 days post-brewday:</i> My brew-versary, and the "theoretical" first taste of this beer.</div>
<hr />
<h3>
Tasting Notes</h3>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtgijSElWehi15DUxhsQG_1bygqX_XIKW0Wp7x0JpjDtfHsLbFY10L9oEDQClo2frEM1LYRHVwAhM-5-XQqjUx83jmcyWadbnJiacGYzzqYk8EPPatk_sgzOb0KYU3MOZvxvj8hRcBm3yc/s1600/theMonk.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtgijSElWehi15DUxhsQG_1bygqX_XIKW0Wp7x0JpjDtfHsLbFY10L9oEDQClo2frEM1LYRHVwAhM-5-XQqjUx83jmcyWadbnJiacGYzzqYk8EPPatk_sgzOb0KYU3MOZvxvj8hRcBm3yc/s320/theMonk.png" width="178" /></a>I'll admit to cheating and tasting this beer a few times along the way. It was near undrinkable coming out of the primary fermenter, tasting more like rocket fuel than beer. It was not noticeably better 5 months in - maybe a little less heat from the fusel alcohols, but it was still an unpalatable mess. But I let it ride, and ~600 days post brew-day I kegged the beer - a warm sample tasted at kegging was fantastic - its amazing what time will do. But the full tasting notes are for the final bottled product, and to say I'm the proud father of this beer would not be an understatement:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Appearance:</b> This beer is ridiculously thick - you can sense the thickness as the beer lazily pours into the glass. The head is a thin beige mass that quickly disappears, and the body is a deep mahogany that coats the side of the glass. The bubbles are quite fine, and move slowly upward through the beer.<br />
<br />
<b>Aroma:</b> An intense malt character dominates the aroma of this beer, behind which a plum-like fruitiness is apparent. Despite the high alcohol, there is no "hot" aroma or solvent-like notes.<br />
<br />
<b>Flavour:</b> When cold, this beer is intensely malty, dominantly sweet, with only subtle hints of any yeast character in the background. As the beer warms these yeast characters come out more - dominated by stone fruit character (plums or dates), but with some subtle pepper-like phenolics. When you first take a sip the only indication of the high alcohol content is a subtle tingling heat on the back of your tongue; when swallowed this turns into a lingering heat in the back of the throat and a warm feeling in your belly. Overarching all of these flavours are flavours typical of vintage beers - notably a combination of sherry and port note from oxidation, and a more dried-fruit character to the ester component of the beer. The aftertaste is a long, lingering sweetness and a warmness in your stomach that can persist for hours.<br />
<br />
<b>Mouthfeel:</b> Thick and luxurious, with a slight tingling sensation from the carbonation and alcohol.<br />
<br />
<b>Overall:</b> The high sweetness and complex flavour of this beer makes it a great digestif to follow a meal, or to enjoy late at nigh while listening to music in the dark. The same characteristics make it a difficult beer to quaff a pint or two - a half-filled wine glass is the idea serving size. I do wish this beer was a little less sweet - something that could have been achieved by using simple sugars for 20% to 30% of the fermentables - but otherwise this beer came out much as I expected. An enjoyable beer - and one which should age well and be enjoyed for many years. I guess 20 years of brewing experience does pay off!</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-37316915187602809212016-12-20T07:50:00.000-05:002017-09-04T14:26:05.130-04:00Mike's Export - Recipe & Tasting Notes<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLFtTzmBO0EwsOWJsWMGj60VfI6HOW3_ueUd3CO5QKUM9g94dDeWk_v6o91xpevP97jM25RvkwL8JP-Aj9_Z0dZg8iZ83fo1dxeBSrSd-NIvFJXM__f8e1QwOQL_9cwYZtQuSM22zCo4ez/s1600/MIkesExport.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLFtTzmBO0EwsOWJsWMGj60VfI6HOW3_ueUd3CO5QKUM9g94dDeWk_v6o91xpevP97jM25RvkwL8JP-Aj9_Z0dZg8iZ83fo1dxeBSrSd-NIvFJXM__f8e1QwOQL_9cwYZtQuSM22zCo4ez/s320/MIkesExport.png" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glass of export in the <br />
winter sunset</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As readers of my blog may know, I occasionally brew with 'Mike' - my wife's uncle. Mike is a BMC lager fan who also doesn't mind some forms of craft beer. Brewing with him has been an adventure on my end, as its forced me to explore some of the lighter ale and lager styles I normally wouldn't brew - and in doing so, I've become rather enamoured with some of the maltier German lagers.<br />
<br />
While leads me to today's post/beer, a Dortmunder-style lager ('German Helles Exporbier' in the new style guidelines) that Mike and I brewed a little over a month ago. I brewed this beer using the fast-lager method I've developed (based on <a href="http://brulosophy.com/" target="_blank">Brulosophy</a> work) over the past year, using another vial of the W34/70 frozen down in my "<a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/08/new-video-freezing-yeast.html">Freezing Yeast</a>" video. The "warm lager" method I've settled on works as follows:<br />
<ol>
<li>Pitch a healthy dose of a warm-lager-comparable (e.g. W34/70) lager yeast into cellar-temperature wort (10-16C).</li>
<li>Ferment ~ 1 week at cellar temperature, then warm beer to 20C for another weeks fermentation.</li>
<li>Keg after 14 days fermentation, or transfer to secondary and age further at cellar temperatures .</li>
</ol>
<div>
This has turned around 5 lager beers, most in 2-3 weeks, all of which tasted excellent and without significant flaws. This is now my go-to method of brewing lagers. This Dortmunder was no exception - a fantastic beer whose only notable flaw was a mis-balance in bitterness and maltiness, due to a higher-than-expected starting gravity.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Recipe, brew-day notes and tasting notes can be found below the fold...<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<h3>
Recipe</h3>
</div>
<table bgcolor="#C0C0C0" border="0" style="width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: white; font-size: x-large;"><i>Mike's Export</i></span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="color: white;"><i>German Helles Exportbier</i></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<table border="0" style="width: 95%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Type:</i></b> All Grain</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Date:</i></b> 06 Nov 2016</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Batch Size
(fermenter):</i></b> 42.00 l</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Boil Size:</i></b> 52.28 l</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Boil Time:</i></b> 90 min</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>End of Boil Volume</i></b> 46.28 l</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Brewhouse Efficiency:</i></b> 72.00 %</td>
<td width="52%"><b></b></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2"><div align="center">
<b><span style="color: white; font-size: medium;">Ingredients</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><div align="center">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="BeerSmithTable" style="width: 100%px;">
<caption>Ingredients</caption>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="left" width="22%"><b>
Amt</b></th>
<th align="left" width="50%"><b>
Name</b></th>
<th align="left" width="11%"><b>
Type</b></th>
<th align="left" width="4%"><b>
#</b></th>
<th align="left" width="11%"><b>
%/IBU</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">7.00 kg</td>
<td align="left">Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM)</td>
<td align="left">Grain</td>
<td align="left">1</td>
<td align="left">69.2 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">3.00 kg</td>
<td align="left">Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)</td>
<td align="left">Grain</td>
<td align="left">2</td>
<td align="left">29.7 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">0.11 kg</td>
<td align="left">Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM)</td>
<td align="left">Grain</td>
<td align="left">3</td>
<td align="left">1.1 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">35.00 g</td>
<td align="left">Magnum [12.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">4</td>
<td align="left">26.5 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">2.00 tsp</td>
<td align="left">Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)</td>
<td align="left">Fining</td>
<td align="left">5</td>
<td align="left">-</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">30.00 g</td>
<td align="left">Hallertau [4.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">6</td>
<td align="left">1.7 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">30.00 g</td>
<td align="left">Hallertau [4.80 %] - Boil 0.0 min</td>
<td align="left">Hop</td>
<td align="left">7</td>
<td align="left">0.0 IBUs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">1.0 pkg</td>
<td align="left">Saflager Lager (DCL/Fermentis #W-34/70) [50.28 ml]</td>
<td align="left">Yeast</td>
<td align="left">8</td>
<td align="left">-</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2"><div align="center">
<span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"><b>Beer Profile</b></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Est Original Gravity:</i></b> 1.054 SG</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Measured Original Gravity:</i></b> 1.058 SG</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><i><b>Est Final Gravity:</b></i> 1.012 SG</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Measured Final Gravity:</i></b> 1.013 SG</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Estimated Alcohol by Vol:</i></b> 5.4 %</td>
<td width="52%"><i><b>Actual Alcohol by Vol:</b></i> 6.3 %</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><i><b>Bitterness:</b></i> 28.2 IBUs</td>
<td width="52%"><i><b>Est Color:</b></i> 6.3 SRM</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"></td><td width="52%"></td></tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#C0C0C0" colspan="2"><div align="center">
<span style="color: white; font-size: medium;"><b>Mash Profile</b></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Mash Name:</i></b> Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Total Grain Weight:</i></b> 10.11 kg</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Sparge Water:</i></b> 36.03 l</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Grain Temperature:</i></b> 19.0 C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Sparge Temperature:</i></b> 75.6 C</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Tun Temperature:</i></b> 19.0 C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="40%"><b><i>Adjust Temp for Equipment:</i></b> TRUE</td>
<td width="52%"><b><i>Mash PH:</i></b> 5.20</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><div align="center">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="BeerSmithTable" style="width: 100%px;">
<caption>Mash Steps</caption>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="left" width="19%"><b>
Name</b></th>
<th align="left" width="54%"><b>
Description</b></th>
<th align="left" width="12%"><b>
Step Temperature</b></th>
<th align="left" width="12%"><b>
Step Time</b></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Mash In</td>
<td align="left">Add 26.63 l of water at 75.0 C</td>
<td align="left">66.7 C</td>
<td align="left">90 min</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b><i>Sparge Step:</i></b> Batch sparge with 2 steps (9.77l, 26.27l) of 75.6 C water</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Notes:</b> Uneventful brew-day, only 'flaw' was the pre-boil gravity was higher than the planned for post-boil gravity.<br />
<hr />
<h3>
Tasting Notes:</h3>
<div>
<b><i>Appearance</i></b><i style="font-weight: bold;">:</i> Pours with a thick white head, and a golden effervescent body.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Aroma:</i> Aroma is Pilsner malt (breaddy/malty) and a nild but spicy hop aroma.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Flavour:</i> The beer is malt-forward, with a wonderful pilsner-malt flavour. This is balanced by a rather modest hop bitterness and subtle hop flavour (spicy/herbal). I really enjoy this beer, but it is somewhat off-style (and now quite what I was hoping for), as there should be a more perceptable bitterness. This mis-balance is due to the higher than expected starting gravity, without a correction in the amount of bittering hops added (due to the absence of any extra hops in my freezer). As a consequence this beer is not as balanced between hops and malt as is expected of the style, and instead is more malt-dominant - an "imperial helles" captures the character rather accurately. Beer ends malty, but dry.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Mouthfeel:</i> The mouthfeel on this beer is spot-on; malty, but not overly so, and quite thirst quenching.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i style="font-weight: bold;">Overall:</i> A good - but not great - beer. The higher-than-planned gravity, combined with my failure to dilute the wort or add extra hops, led to an overly-malty beer. And while the final beer is quite good, the relatively low bitterness leaves it a little too malt-forward for my tastes.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-68160785592978945572016-12-16T08:45:00.002-05:002017-09-04T14:26:25.075-04:00Tasting Notes - Vinland Kveik<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztq4TusKifP1nlthswkGbui0h-b4CBw4fe3RzWF8ZB80lTzwlYN7mrNNdHzsiJpunnSZOfB_9zBBTtHyfKykkLZ8_ctqBXV4gw30Imf5DA8WEtI5Eh6-a4EmhwYNVxtaHuxifQdR7H3QK/s1600/vinlandkveik.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiztq4TusKifP1nlthswkGbui0h-b4CBw4fe3RzWF8ZB80lTzwlYN7mrNNdHzsiJpunnSZOfB_9zBBTtHyfKykkLZ8_ctqBXV4gw30Imf5DA8WEtI5Eh6-a4EmhwYNVxtaHuxifQdR7H3QK/s320/vinlandkveik.png" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kveik in the Winter Sunset</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/11/its-advent-season.html">last post on my blog</a> was the brewing of my advent beer for this year - a Norwegian-style Kveik, "reimagined" using ingredients that would have been available (minus the malt) to the Vikings who set foot in Canada over a thousand years ago.<br />
<br />
Last night was this beers "turn" in my <a href="http://www.londonbrewers.ca/" target="_blank">brew-clubs</a> annual advent exchange, so its time for some tasting notes.<br />
<br />
<b>Appearance:</b> Pours with an effervescent light copper body and a thick white head.<br />
<br />
<b>Aroma:</b> A spiciness that is hard to describe - vanilla, pepper, and a bit of a generic "spice".<br />
<br />
<b>Flavour:</b> When young the beer had a notable orange ester character, alongside a spiciness that had discernible vanilla, pepsi and allspice-like notes. As it aged these flavours mellowed into a more generic spiciness (still good, but without the dominant & discrete flavours) and a more subtle citrus-ish ester character. This spiciness was built on top of a malty backbone with a low-level hop bitterness. Balance is malt-forward. Aftertaste is a lingering malt sweetness and spiciness from the spruce.<br />
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<b>Mouthfeel:</b> Moderate-to-high body, creamy and smooth, but highly effervescent. A lower level of carbonation would likely have been better for this style of beer.<br />
<br />
<b>Overall:</b> I really enjoyed this beer, both young and aged, but with a preference for the younger beer. When young, the beer had several flavour notes that stood out - vanilla, all-spice, and orange. Combined with the maltiness, these flavours created the ultimate Christmas beer with a character similar to that of a spice cookie. As the beer aged these distinct flavours blended to a more generic citrus & spice character - still pleasant and nicely balanced, but without the distinct flavour notes of the younger beer. When (not if) I rebrew this beer I'm only going to make a few minor tweaks:<br />
<ol>
<li>I'm going to further enhance the orange character by pitching less yeast and fermenting a few degrees warmer (in the range or 39-42C)</li>
<li>I'm not going to bother tracking down native north American hops (hop character was minimal and I doubt you'd notice much of a difference with any other hop being used)</li>
<li>I'm going to keg it much younger - traditional Kveik is usually brewed for <a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/291.html" target="_blank">3-4 days</a> before transferring to the serving vessel, whereas I kegged after 14 days.</li>
</ol>
Hopefully the warmer ferment and shorter fermentation cycle will capture more of the orange character and preserve those unique spice notes.
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-45661016982719682362016-11-30T12:41:00.004-05:002017-09-04T14:27:15.472-04:00Kveik - It's Advent Season!The end of November is upon us, and for members of my homebrewing club this means one thing - our annual advent beer exchange. This year we had 25 brewers exchanging beers, which we will enjoy starting today and running through to December 24th. A much better advent calendar than those crummy chocolates!<br />
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<a href="http://i.imgur.com/9B8rd2T.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://i.imgur.com/9B8rd2T.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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My contribution to this years exchange is a Kveik, a Norweigian Farmhouse Ale, with a twist...my goal with this beer was to “reimagine” what the vikings who settled the north-east coast of Canada a millennium ago may have brewed. So in place of traditional Norweigian ingredients (juniper, European hops) I used instead spruce and wild hops native to Canada's far north.<br />
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Recipe and various notes & ramblings can be found below the fold - I'll post full tasting notes on the official day for my beer in the advent exchange.<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<h2>
Recipe and Brewing Notes</h2>
<div>
<div>
This beer is a tad…odd, and some ingredients may be hard to source. The key to this beer is the fermentation temperature – which is hot. And I’m not talking Belgian-hot, I’m talking “is this a fermenter or are we setting up for a clam bake” hot – 36 to 42C. I fermented at 36C and wish I had gone hotter. As my label said, my goal with this beer was to “reimagine” what the vikings who settled the north-east coast of Canada a millennia ago may have brewed. Because of this some of the ingredients may be hard to source – I’ve indicated alternatives for these.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Stats: OG: 1.068, FG: 1.006, ABV: 8%, IBU: 11</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>98% Pilsner or other lightly killened malt</li>
<li>2% Melanoidin malt</li>
<li>9 IBU Canadian Redvine hops, 90 min (alternate: any high-cohumulone hop)</li>
<li>Irish Moss, 10 min</li>
<li>1.25 g/L Canadian Redvine hops, 10 min (alternative: galena)</li>
<li>Kveik yeast (non-commercial strain sent to me by a homebrewer)</li>
<li>~5 tsp Black spruce extract (alternatives discussed below)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Mash 3 hours at 69 C (no, those are not typos). Collect enough wort for a 90 min boil. Boil for 90 min, adding hops and irish moss as indicated. “Cool” to fermentation temperature (36-42C) and pitch the yeast. Hold at this temperature until krausen falls (~4 days), then cool at ~2C/day until you reach room temperature. Keg after 14 days, adding spruce extract to taste at kegging.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Black spruce extract is not made commercially, which I why I had a friend make it for me – she gathered some black spruce tips, threw them into a half-bottle of cheap vodka, and mailed that to me (along with the redvine hops, also native to her corner of Labrador). I strained it through a coffee filter and then used it as-is (probably ~10 days soaking in vodka by the time I got it). Black spruce can be found across much of Canada and in parts of the US, but many brew supply stores will carry white spruce extract which I think would be similar.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The traditional Norwegian Kveik is made using juniper branches in place of spruce – branches are seeped in the mash and sparge water to make a juniper “infusion” and the mash tun is also lined with branches as a sparge aid. In palce of spruce you could use juniper, but be careful as some of the ornamental junipers used in gardens are toxic. Culinary juniper berries are also an option, but apparently they give a very different flavour.
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<hr />
<h2>
Random Thoughts</h2>
<div>
Although I'm planning on posting full tasting notes in a few weeks, there are a few comments on the beer that I can make now without ruining things. I have only two regrets with this beer – the first is that I did not ferment it warmer (I did 36C; 39-42C would have been better). The orange-like esters of the yeast were present, but could have been much stronger. The second is that I wish I had brewed it closer to the advent exchange. When it was fresh the distinct character of both the yeast and spruce were easily discernible, and gave a wonderful character similar to a spiced orange cookie. These flavours have mellowed and blended in the ~2 months since brew-day, and while the beer is still nice, it lacks those distinct flavour notes.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The strong orange character of the yeast is very intriguing, and unlike other beer yeasts, there are no notable off-flavours produced by this yeast at these high fermentation temperatures. I think this yeast may work well with dark malt beers - chocolate stouts in particular, potentially creating a beer similar to orange-infused chocolate. Others have had luck using Kveik yeast to emphasise the citrus nature of new-world hops; I actually attempted this with my <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2016/11/black-adder.html">Black Adder IPA</a>, with some success, although once again my fear of high fermentation temperatures muted the character of the yeast.<br />
<hr />
<h2>
More on Kveik</h2>
</div>
<div>
Kveik is relatively new to the North American brewing scene, but is a centuries (if not millennia) old tradition in Norway.A few Norwegian homebrewers have brought Kveik to the worlds attention, including performing some genetic analysis of the unusual yeast used in this beer (spoiler: its a hybrid of several <i>Saccharomyces</i> species). If you are interested in Kveik I'd suggest some of the following blog posts as places to start:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Lars Blog</i></div>
<div>
Lars Garshol is the guru of Kveik, has written a book on Kveik (sadly, only available in Norwegian), and is a prolific writer about Kveik (and other northern-European farmhouse/rare beer styles). His blog - <a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/" target="_blank">LarsBlog</a> - is a cornucopia of information on Norwegian brewing, Kveik, and several other topics. Its a good blog to pursue, but some of the more standout articles on Kveik are:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/264.html" target="_blank">Kveik: Norwegian Farmhouse Yeast</a> - a general introduction to Kveik</li>
<li><a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/291.html" target="_blank">Brewing with Kveik</a> - Lars joins some brewers for a brewday, and shows us how Norwegian farmhouse ales are made.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/329.html" target="_blank">Kveik Testing</a>: Tasting notes on a variety of Kveik yeasts.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.garshol.priv.no/blog/349.html" target="_blank">Analysis of Farmhouse Yeast</a> - a genetic analysis of several Kveik yeasts</li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>Milk The Funk</i></div>
</div>
<div>
As always, the milk the funk group (a closed facebook group) has been following Kveik with interest, ever since it came to our attention. While the group is closed (although gaining membership is easy), much of the main discussions we've had on Kveik <a href="http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Kveik" target="_blank">is catalogued at the milk-the-funk wiki</a>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Videos</i></div>
<div>
A short documentary (with English subtitles), following a brew-day, has been posted to Vimeo
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/156659003" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
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<br />
Another similar video can be found on Youtube, but without any subtitles (its fun to watch)</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vvV6657b2NY" width="560"></iframe>Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-84474624821161956982016-11-07T13:41:00.001-05:002017-09-04T14:27:54.790-04:00Black Adder<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuXq7wTYESLsne4DqC2VPNTtmxdc2eFHGJ42maDVyAKDpB9hHJWAoZ2Sialz7tEdIkff9z0ZfCvmMy-96Ru8_I08DElaeo6zM92pK6rwZx2rEm9DNtWLx68DMADnRkNawI3x9IN17wZIqt/s1600/ba2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuXq7wTYESLsne4DqC2VPNTtmxdc2eFHGJ42maDVyAKDpB9hHJWAoZ2Sialz7tEdIkff9z0ZfCvmMy-96Ru8_I08DElaeo6zM92pK6rwZx2rEm9DNtWLx68DMADnRkNawI3x9IN17wZIqt/s320/ba2016.jpg" width="236" /></a></div>
This year marked the fourth year of my hop farming experiment. I added two centennial plants this year, to go with my cascades and goldings. Over the past few years I've brewed a variant of a black IPA, which I've called the black mamba (year <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.com/2014/03/brew-day-black-mamba-rye-ipa.html">1</a>, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2015/04/return-of-black-mamba.html">2</a>, <a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.com/2016/02/black-mamba-third.html">3</a>). While I've enjoyed playing with that recipe, the new centennial hops plus a desire to try something new led me to develop a new beer for this years hop harvest.<br />
<br />
Sticking with the snake theme, this years beer is the "Black Adder the 1st", although that should be taken more along the lines of Rowan Atkinson than of a scary big snake. This beer is still a black IPA, but with a lot of changes from the black mamba of yesteryear. Gone are the rye and wheat malts, with the beer brewed to be drier and more hop-forward. This beer contains 225g (a half-pound) of centennial and cascade hops, and even more oddly, was brewed using a Kveik yeast kindly sent to me by a Norwegian brewer. The vision of this beer was to emphasise the citrus notes of the hops with a yeast strain with a reputation for orange-like esters.<br />
<br />
This didn't come out exactly as I had envisioned, and the hop character faded awfully fast, but I did learn two things while making this beer. <b>1)</b> I am probably drying my hops incorrectly, which would account for their slightly different than excepted character and poor in-beer stability. Apparently I should dry them using a dehydrator or over at ~55C/130F (<a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/basicbrewing/bbr09-29-16brewinglocal.mp3" target="_blank">link</a>). <b>2)</b> Kveik yeast kicks ass in dark beers. The orange character blends nicely with roast malts, giving a character similar to orange-infused chocolate. A future stout will be brewed with this yeast!<br />
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Recipe and tasting notes can be found below the fold...<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr />
<h3>
Recipe</h3>
<div>
<i>Malts:</i></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>81.6% 2-row</li>
<li>7.4% wheat malt</li>
<li>5.9% blackprinz</li>
<li>3.5% Crystal 120L</li>
<li>1.5% Special roast</li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>Hops (for 25L):</i></div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>40 g Northern Brewer (33 IBU, 60 min)</li>
<li>50 g Home-grown centennial (~8 IBU, 10 min)</li>
<li>25 g Home-grown cascade (~2 IBU, 10 min)</li>
<li>75 g Home-grown centennial (15 min whirpool)</li>
<li>75 g Home-grown cascade (15 min whirpool)</li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>Brew-day:</i></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Mash at 65.6C for 60 minutes and batch sparge</li>
<li>60 min boil, adding Irish moss 10 minutes prior to end of boil</li>
<li>Chill and pitch Kveik yeast</li>
<li>Ferment 14 days at ~22 C</li>
</ol>
<div>
<i>Stats:</i></div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>OG: 1.058</li>
<li>FG: 1.008</li>
<li>ABV: 6.6%</li>
<li>IBU: 60</li>
</ul>
</div>
<hr />
<h3>
Tasting Notes</h3>
<div>
<b>Appearance:</b> Dark brown, almost black. Pours with a course but long-lived white head.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Aroma:</b> Strong citrus/resin hop character, mild malt character</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Flavour:</b><i> </i>A strong hop presence dominates, most resinous with some citrus character. Behind the hops is a modest orange character from the yeast and a malt profile similar to a brown porter (toasty, not roasty). Due, I think, to the large amount of hops there was also an unpleasant grass-like character. The hop character didn't last very long in the keg (~3 weeks), leaving behind an intriguing beer with an interesting orange/toast combination that makes me want to use kveik yeast in more dark beers. Aftertaste was a lingering hop bitterness with grass undertones.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Mouthfeel:</b> Dry, but thirst quenching</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Overall:</b> Overall this was not a bad beer, especially for something I essentially made up the morning of brew-day (my intended ingredients for the kveik yeast didn't make it through the mail on time for brew-day). The biggest thing to come out of this beer is a real interest in kveik yeast - the character imparted by it was fantastic, and I cannot wait to try it in more beers.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-14809540709438383262016-10-14T08:02:00.001-04:002017-09-04T14:27:31.046-04:00New Video...and a New Video SeriesI am happy to announce a new "initiative" here at Sui Generis Brewing, specifically a new video series titled "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ3Z2428mCTpBuHA95aJvGk03X1QxWYbu" target="_blank">Beer on the Brain</a>" - short (5 minute) videos on various topics about the science and methodology of brewing.<br />
<br />
Here's the series trailer:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HpsLaNqn6Fc?list=PLZ3Z2428mCTpBuHA95aJvGk03X1QxWYbu" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
And here is the first video in the series, about a myth that Starsan cannot kill yeast:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0JC9n50RdVo?list=PLZ3Z2428mCTpBuHA95aJvGk03X1QxWYbu" width="560"></iframe><br />
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I hope you enjoy!Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8081751738815878503.post-67573911655561298322016-09-24T16:51:00.002-04:002017-09-04T14:29:27.258-04:00One brew day - several sour(ish) beers<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw-DMe7r8BhvThyphenhyphenBqdbAjwSCunC2FRPeK77yhORJD79vCE7fWIxYViA_x4ggy3-qXg4q1IbtHdzBt4c2IHoX4CNBLdWatU5dH-h04BD5cLXADmmWidPlXwCjx04iPaIbJbHKXOjEz74OZz/s1600/Snail.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw-DMe7r8BhvThyphenhyphenBqdbAjwSCunC2FRPeK77yhORJD79vCE7fWIxYViA_x4ggy3-qXg4q1IbtHdzBt4c2IHoX4CNBLdWatU5dH-h04BD5cLXADmmWidPlXwCjx04iPaIbJbHKXOjEz74OZz/s320/Snail.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Random "helper" captured while preparing the fruit for this beer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is a big post, providing information on three very different beers, all brewed from a single wort a little over a month ago. This has been (and continues to be) a pretty exciting series of beers - from a single wort I made a dry hopped berliner weiss, an experimental beer with the yeast <i>Lachancea thermotolerans</i>, and a fruited/bretted beer using wild grapes and the flora of those grapes!<br />
<br />
<br />
At the heart of these three very different beers is an incredibly simple wort - a 44L (11.6 US gallon) batch of a no-boil Beliner Weisse, based loosely on the <a href="http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Berliner_Weissbier#Milk_the_Funk_Berliner_Weissbier_Recipe" target="_blank">Milk the Funk Berliner Weisse</a> recipe. Rather than post my recipe, I'd direct you to the previous link. The only modifications I made were in my procedures:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>I mashed at 62.8C for 75 minutes, to get a drier final beer than the MTF standard recipe.</li>
<li>The wort was not boiled; instead I heated it to ~90C, and let it sit at this temperature for 10 minutes prior to cooling to 45C for pitching of the <i>Lactobacillus</i>.</li>
<li>No hops were used in the mash or boil.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Once the wort was prepared 4L was pulled off for the experimental <i>Lachancea thermotolerans</i> beer, the remaining 40L kettle-soured with a fantastic wild lactobacillus available only to my home brewing club, and once soured, split into two batches - one dry-hopped upon completion and the other bretted and fruited with wild grapes.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The details of each of these beers, and tasting notes for two of them, can be found below the fold. Its a bit of a read, so you may want to pull yourself a pint before you proceed.<br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<hr />
<h3>
<i>Lachancea thermotolerans</i></h3>
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlhF4XSWnBErUrFjQRyOT7O94bSRoQ82C1a3GgBlueQBOCu4dvomf0l4iJ3Ldq2Bc50gf6NXmbvkewy3eM03MZtvX630rohqTyplq1M4rAOy0WFoX6iMJ1Akt5PSnQ0gkAE8NWejXcThW/s1600/Lthermo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMlhF4XSWnBErUrFjQRyOT7O94bSRoQ82C1a3GgBlueQBOCu4dvomf0l4iJ3Ldq2Bc50gf6NXmbvkewy3eM03MZtvX630rohqTyplq1M4rAOy0WFoX6iMJ1Akt5PSnQ0gkAE8NWejXcThW/s320/Lthermo.png" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>L. thermotolerans</i> beer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This was supposed to be a side-by-side of two different <i>Lachancea</i> species - <i>L. thermotolerans </i>and <i>L. fermentii</i>. Unfortunately, while the "thermotolerans" is reflective of that species better high-temperature survival, it is a relative term, meaning that the <i>L. thermotolerans</i> barely survived the 28C incubator I use to grow my yeast, while the <i>L. fermenti</i> died screeming. So this experiment got paired down to a single species of <i>Lachancea</i>.<br />
<br />
My interest in these yeasts is motivated by a fairly unusual characteristic of them - namely, that they produce lactic acid. In theory, these yeasts could be used to prepare a Berliner Weisse or Gose style beer without the use bacteria for souring. This could be a great time-saver, and remove the concerns raised when introducing souring organisms into a brewery.<br />
<br />
The 4L of wort used for this beer was transferred into a 4L glass fermenter and a small (250 ml) starter of <i>L. thermotolerans</i> pitched. Within a few days fermentation was complete, but I let it sit an additional 2 weeks to give the yeast a chance to clean up any off-flavours. The beer was then transferred to 500 mL plastic bottles and force-carbonated with a carb-cap.<br />
<br />
Sadly, this yeast did not make a nice beer. The beer itself looks nice, much clearer than expected given the wheat content of the beer and lack of hot-break. But as pretty as it is, the flavour simply does not work. This yeast has a very strong ester character, similar to apple cider (not the green-apple taste of acetaldehyde, but rather the taste of unfermented apple cider). This is "complemented" by a sweetness (from the esters I assume, given the FG was 1.002) along with a bit of an "unclean" flavour that is hard to describe. The level of acidity is very modest - a mild "tang" along with a bit of a lactic taste. In my opinion the lactic character clashes poorly with the apple character...my wife, who hates beer, disagrees and actually likes this beer quite a bit. I'm aging some of this beer for an additional few months to see if it improves; I'll post on this sometime in October.<br />
<hr />
<h3>
Dry-Hopped Berliner Weisse</h3>
After pasturization and pulling the 4L of wort for the <i>Lachancea thermotolerans</i> beer, I cooled the remaining 40L of wort to 45C, at which point I pitched an ~1L starter of my brewing guilds custom lacto strain, named "<i>Lacto godzillicus</i>" after its ability to sour almost anything at almost any temperature. I insulated my kettle with a bit of water-heater insulation (<a href="http://suigenerisbrewing.blogspot.ca/2015/07/how-i-sour-mash-recipe.html">see my old post for how I set this up</a>) and let the temperature free-fall to ambient (about 25C in my garage) over a period of 2 days. At this point the wort was fully soured, and I transferred it, unpasturized and without additional boiling, into two 23L carboys.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihzJCMvp0v_M0SL2ApRQIy5MfEo89nwBiOwc5wpoEZk6kthjls7WDTpyCNBRDnt_N3_cYrmeZVEBeVafXKak20t5gkC7ms-gbeHww-QOGfnXZq-aZxcDuU7qSJUtnvSRMEEp8MmK3hMPK3/s1600/40Lsour.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihzJCMvp0v_M0SL2ApRQIy5MfEo89nwBiOwc5wpoEZk6kthjls7WDTpyCNBRDnt_N3_cYrmeZVEBeVafXKak20t5gkC7ms-gbeHww-QOGfnXZq-aZxcDuU7qSJUtnvSRMEEp8MmK3hMPK3/s320/40Lsour.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">40L of soured wort, 12 hours after pitching yeast</td></tr>
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Each carboy was pitched with 1 packet of rehydrated US-05, which as it turns out, was a poor choice of yeast (unlike my preferred Wyeast 1007, US-05 is quite slow in soured wort and took 2 weeks to ferment to completion). Rather than affixing a blow-off tube, I simply put a foil cap on top of each carboy, which was replaced after the main fermentation completed (~6 days) with airlocks. 14 days after pitching the yeast I dry-hopped one of the carboys with 60g (~2.4oz) of Galaxy and 30g (~1.2oz) of Citra. Three days later I transfered the beer to a carboy and force-carbonated to 2.4 volumes.<br />
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Unlike the first beer created from this wort, this one did not disappoint. In fact, it may be one of the best beers of 2016! Here's the breakdown:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdBqtvsodd3nsTjMFeXXvX1eggjFWPamzc3mfSHdXA22iYndI5Eqaxp6fJ2Z_tN4VJm-z-OUSlQXZ7MavO_qImmPm1OUdEeNFgjmP3sHiC9YNaAoUo7-n4DQrTES1trfLxxXNVVjzFq9B/s1600/DHberliner.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPdBqtvsodd3nsTjMFeXXvX1eggjFWPamzc3mfSHdXA22iYndI5Eqaxp6fJ2Z_tN4VJm-z-OUSlQXZ7MavO_qImmPm1OUdEeNFgjmP3sHiC9YNaAoUo7-n4DQrTES1trfLxxXNVVjzFq9B/s320/DHberliner.png" width="163" /></a></div>
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<b>Appearance:</b> Pours straw-yellow, with a faint wheat haze. The head on the beer is thick and pillowy. Sour beers often have a reputation for poor head retention - I don't know if its because of the no-boil approach, or the particular lactobacillus used - but the head on this beer lasts and lasts and lasts, leaving Belgian lace on the glass right to the last sip.<br />
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<b>Aroma:</b> A refreshing papaya and citrus note dominates the aroma of the beer. A subtle lactic character is also present in the background.<br />
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<b>Flavour:</b> WOW. Up front is the acidity provided by the lactobacillus - its not an intense, enamel-stripping acidity, but rather is a more modest acidity. This sourness perfectly balances the tropical fruit flavours provided by the hops, which provide not only a fruit flavour, but also a subtle sweetness. The combination of the two provides a character almost that of fruit juice - though-be-it, a quite acidic fruit juice. The malt provides a soft bready character to the beer - but while present, this character is subtle and comes out more in the aftertaste than in the sip of beer itself. The aftertaste is a mix of fruit-sweetness and bready maltiness, which fades into a nice fruit note.<br />
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<b>Mouthfeel:</b> The beer is dry and provides an acidic tingle on the tongue. Very, very refreshing.<br />
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<b>Overall:</b> Hot damn, this is a good beer. Well balanced, refreshing, easily drinkable and yet also a beer which you can slowly savour. A great beer to enjoy in the dog days of summer. One of the better beers of this year, and quite possibly the best Berliner I've brewed to date.<br />
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<h3>
Fruited Berliner</h3>
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This final beer originated as more an accident than anything else. The second carboy of Berliner I described above was transferred to a secondary carboy the same day I kegged the hopped Berliner Weisse, and had been sitting in my basement, giving off a distinct desultory vibe, ever since. I knew I wanted to add some Brettanomyces character to it, and I knew I wanted to add fruit, but couldn't think of a combination that excited me. I had an epiphany on my cycling ride home from work one day - along my route is a rail right-of-way, and all along it wild grapes grow throughout the trees which are fruit-laden in late August and early September. Usually these things are an irritation - the grape vines have a tendency to snag unwary riders, and the birds turn the pathway into a purple-shit coated slipway. But the stars aligned, the muses sang (or some such thing happened), and I realized they may be a perfect (and free) addition to my beer. That night SWIMBO, the offspring and I headed out to the pathway, buckets in hand, and picked over 8kg (~18lbs) of grapes. The next day we destemmed the grapes, washed them in cold water, spread them out on cookie sheets and froze them in the deep-freeze.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0JmpyGdXVut_N8KkU5hMBgyPcd-mq7UjugVd7e-dM5iprD3Zc7g7S8hyphenhyphenHqvN1ZL6ig6jOni2yFO2bmEE7CkNBMDmpz3y1dBMDz0XncLlx2tOs-NzjSmK_l6P-03KZ-7z-DF_oJNNZXDIp/s1600/Grapes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0JmpyGdXVut_N8KkU5hMBgyPcd-mq7UjugVd7e-dM5iprD3Zc7g7S8hyphenhyphenHqvN1ZL6ig6jOni2yFO2bmEE7CkNBMDmpz3y1dBMDz0XncLlx2tOs-NzjSmK_l6P-03KZ-7z-DF_oJNNZXDIp/s320/Grapes.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: ~10 minutes after adding grapes, right: 3 weeks after adding grapes</td></tr>
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Once frozen I measured out 2.5kg (5.5lbs) of the grapes and dumped them into the carboy, along with a 300 ml starter of <i>Brettanomyces clausenii</i>. I chose this strain of brett as I expect the grapes to have a strong tannic character, and thus wanted a fruit-forward strain, rather then phenol-forward strain, to better complement the tannins of the grapes. Almost immediately after adding the grapes the beer turned a dark blue colour, which over the next few weeks deepened to a dark purple. This beer continues to ferment and age, with a planned kegging date of mid-November. So for now I can leave you with only a picture of the beer, and a promise to blog about it further once it is done.</div>
Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16672407110077541595noreply@blogger.com5